Posted on 09/13/2014 12:28:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: What is so super about tomorrow's supermoon? Tomorrow, a full moon will occur that appears slightly larger and brighter than usual. The reason is that the Moon's fully illuminated phase occurs within a short time from perigee - when the Moon is its closest to the Earth in its elliptical orbit. Although the precise conditions that define a supermoon vary, given one definition, tomorrow's will be the third supermoon of the year -- and the third consecutive month that a supermoon occurs. One reason supermoons are popular is because they are so easy to see -- just go outside and sunset and watch an impressive full moon rise! Since perigee actually occurs today, tonight's sunset moonrise should also be impressive. Pictured above, a supermoon from 2012 is compared to a micromoon -- when a full Moon occurs near the furthest part of the Moon's orbit -- so that it appears smaller and dimmer than usual. Given many definitions, at least one supermoon occurs each year, with the next being 2015 August 30.
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[Credit & Copyright: Catalin Paduraru]
Reminds me of a woman I knew years ago.
There are also “supersuns” and “microsuns” by the same meaning, although the variation is less because the Earth’s orbit around the sun is more circular than the moon’s orbit around the Earth. When a solar eclipse happens during a supermoon and/or a microsun, they are total, because the moon is then big enough to cover the entire sun. But when solar eclipses happen during micromoons, and especially so during supersuns, one gets annular eclipses, because the moon then doesn’t fully cover the sun.
Silly, it got turned around when it was on the other side of the Earth.
Thanks coloradan.
Annular eclipses can also occur because of where the three bodies are in terms of the ecliptic (which is an imaginary and average plane). Total eclipses happen when the three are more nearly in the same plane. As you said, the perihelion coinciding with the apogee can make a potential total into an annular.
The difference between the moon’s apogee and perigee is about 13K miles, or almost 5 percent, seems like kind of a lot.
Earth’s perihelion is about 91 million miles, and aphelion is almost 95 million miles, more than 3 million miles difference, so, three to four percent. The northern hemisphere is (and will be throughout our lifetimes, and then some) closer to the Sun during our winter, making our winters (potentially) warmer than those of the southern hemisphere. Our summers are spent further from the Sun.
The southern hemisphere also has most of the water, and a big, more or less permanent block of ice (Antarctica) which makes their climate cooler overall that it would otherwise be.
Yeah, those were the days.
The moon is right side up. It's the New Zealanders who are upside down.
Plastic surgery can work wonders today on correcting such imbalances.
Silly, it got turned around when it was on the other side of the Earth.
Maybe this is what turned it around.
Reminds me of an old Moms Mabley joke:
“So a girlfriend of mine came to me and said, “Moms, I can’t go on. I used to be so gorgeous, and now I’ve gone to pot. I have no reason to live. How can I kill myself?” I tried to talk her out of it, but she was adamant. So I said, “Well, get a gun and shoot yourself just below the left breast.” Damn fool shot herself in the knee.”
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