Comments on: Super Moon was, in fact, pretty super (big photo gallery)

By: thatbaddog

thatbaddog — Tue, 08 May 2012 04:42:00 +0000

The picture with the birds was censored by the government to keep the truth from the people. This is the original.

By: kurisushiro

kurisushiro — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:41:00 +0000

I swear it looked like a screenshot out of one of the castlevania games.

By: kurisushiro

kurisushiro — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:38:00 +0000

He just can’t stand it when anyone looks in awe of anything.

By: GTMoogle

GTMoogle — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:14:00 +0000

It’s about 1% bigger than last month’s full moon.

By: Ruby Opaltones

Ruby Opaltones — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:46:00 +0000

thanks TeaPot it looks great – thooughtful of you to post it for us – even the crabby ones hahaha

By: MrRocking

MrRocking — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:40:00 +0000

I think there are issues in the world far more deserving of your ire.

By: Guest

Guest — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:14:00 +0000

keep looking up!

By: Gee And Gee

Gee And Gee — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:45:00 +0000

A runner makes his way along a trail on a butte in front of the “super Moon” at Papago Park in Phoenix

By: W. Jesse Taylor V

W. Jesse Taylor V — Mon, 07 May 2012 07:03:00 +0000

Well that’s just false. I didn’t hear about the super-moon being anything different from a regular full moon until this morning. But last night I saw the moon and dat shit wuz kray.

By: neutral_corner

neutral_corner — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:32:00 +0000

Drew, I couldn’t agree more, except for the fact that from my roof on Russian Hill in San Francisco, I’ve got one of America’s best moonrise views 12x a year. I’m up there for every single one of them if I’m in town, and all my friends think I’ve got a full moon pagan fetish of some kind. — and it didn’t look any larger than the other 100 full moon rises I’ve seen from my roof.

It was, however, a perfect evening for moonrise gazing in San Francisco and the moon rose lavender against an indigo horizon. Epic.

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Mon, 07 May 2012 02:31:00 +0000

Probably because we had unseasonably humid weather, our super moon was also that striking, slightly menacing shade of orange red. Quite the sight.

By: teapot

teapot — Mon, 07 May 2012 02:00:00 +0000

The birds silhouette is so awesome it became my wallpaper.. Edges needed a little ‘purification’ so here’s my version for anyone else who wants a wallpaper version.

By: teapot

teapot — Mon, 07 May 2012 01:43:00 +0000

While the size of the super moon might not be noticeably larger, IMO the real difference is in the enhanced moonlight’s effects on the environment. Because of the inverse-square law stuff on the ground is extremely illuminated. The average person probably won’t be able to notice a 12% change in the moon’s size in the sky, but even the most untrained eye can notice a 12% difference in brightness.

When I go home today I’ll upload the photo I took yesterday of the moon over the water at Bondi Beach.

By: ZombieOtaku

ZombieOtaku — Sun, 06 May 2012 23:18:00 +0000

I could totally see Uatu!

By: RadioSilence

RadioSilence — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:42:00 +0000

:D They look like pigeons to me. Definitely not crows.

By: Darcy Fitzpatrick

Darcy Fitzpatrick — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:35:00 +0000

Is anyone able to tell what kind of birds are flying in front of the moon in the second photo? I want them to be crows, but they sort of look like they might be pigeons.

By: jmco

jmco — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:12:00 +0000

The full moon is always super — with a telephoto lens and perspective! To the AZ runner, the moon looked fairly normal. But shot at the distance and location with the runner in front, SUPER! Same with the birds and Cristo Redentor in Brazil. Throw in some atmospheric warmth and distortion, and it looks even better.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sun, 06 May 2012 21:17:00 +0000

I look at the moon every night thanks to living in one of the driest places on earth, and yeah, it didn’t look any different to me. The perigee in 2006 seemed more dramatic.

By: IvonaPoyntz

IvonaPoyntz — Sun, 06 May 2012 21:14:00 +0000

Great pics

By: CSMcDonald

CSMcDonald — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:57:00 +0000

So is any full moon, even when the media doesn’t hype it up by running big stories where they make sure to assure people that it won’t flood them with a higher than normal tide.

Phil has a good rundown of the so called supermoon at bad astronomy - http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/05/05/dropping-a-dime-on-the-moon/#more-48485 – he also links to his explanation of the moon illusion – why the moon appears larger closer to the horizon and near objects such as buildings.

By: Ultan

Ultan — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:45:00 +0000

Yeah, walking into the usually dark back room last night, I thought they must have put new lights in the parking lot. Bright, bright moon. Easily bright enough to read a book, even with it only halfway to the zenith.

By: GuyInMilwaukee

GuyInMilwaukee — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:44:00 +0000

(in most pathetic Eeyore voice) “It was cloudy here…. but at least there were no earthquakes…” :(

By: Robin McCown

Robin McCown — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:26:00 +0000

I had no idea that there was supposed to be a “super moon” last night, and I when I saw the moon I said OMG that is an amazing moon. Must. take. pictures.

By: tsa

tsa — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:20:00 +0000

Beuatiful pictures! I love the moon; I took a lot of pictures of it over the years. Unfortunately the weather here was too cloudy to see the moon last night.

By: Drew Gilmore

Drew Gilmore — Sun, 06 May 2012 18:58:00 +0000

No, really. The date of the Moon’s perigee has nothing to what month it is. Harvest moon looks no different either. People think certain full moons look bigger because they watch for it rising, and the moon always looks bigger just over the horizon. It’s the Moon Illusion. Wiki it.

I’m really happy when people go out and look at the sky, I just can’t stand it when it’s because of goofball notions like this.

By: RadioSilence

RadioSilence — Sun, 06 May 2012 18:58:00 +0000

It’s purely the power of suggestion, a full moon at perigee appears 14% larger than an apogee full moon (and an apogee full moon happens as rarely as a so-called supermoon) so only 7% larget than an average sized full moon. The human eye cannot tell a difference in size that small* without something near it to provide context, which is why the moon appears larger when it is near the horizon.

*the moon is seriously small on the sky; hold your little finger up at arm’s length, the nail will cover the moon.

By: DoctorDoak

DoctorDoak — Sun, 06 May 2012 18:48:00 +0000

Not really… it rarely looks close to as large as it did last night in Toronto at about 8:30, unless it’s a harvest moon.

By: Drew Gilmore

Drew Gilmore — Sun, 06 May 2012 18:43:00 +0000

Proof that nobody ever bothers to go out and look at the Moon until social media tells them to. It looks to the eye exactly the same as every other full moon.