It’s a Moon- No, It’s A Super Moon
Mangaluru: Last night’s moon sighted was the biggest and brightest in living memory – and people around the world, including Kudla, watched it after late sunset. For the fact that the moon seemed like it appeared up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than an average full moon. And it is noted that it was the biggest in decades, and offered brilliant photo opportunities, for photographers. The moon was almost as bright and continued to dazzle , but it was at its brightest last night. Observing the super-moon was very easy, as the moon was visible throughout the entire night.
Sources reveal that this was the closest supermoon since January 26, 1948 and won’t be this close again until November 25, 2034. Which means, for many, this could well be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Talk about global warming- showers in the month of November, and Kulda experienced few showers around 7 pm or so last night, which dampened the mood of people who were anxiously waiting to catch the glimpse of the supermoon, but were little disappointed since the clouds were blocking most part of the Supermoon. It was like the ‘Supermoon” playing hide-and-seek with the viewers, that it made itself visible now and then amidst the dark clouds- but still, it was an awesome sight of the night.
So since this was the closest the moon will get to Earth until 25 November 2034- astrophysics students, physics professors, scientists, astronomers and space enthusiasts who didn’t want to miss this one, were anxiously waiting for the great sight of the Supermoon- and they saw what they wanted to see. As per sources, A supermoon is super-sized, because the Earth is closest to the sun in December each year, with gravity pulling it closer. What is a supermoon? A supermoon usually takes place every one to two years, when the full moon coincides with its closest point to Earth during its monthly orbit. Because the moon has an elliptical orbit, one side – called the perigee – is about 48,280 km (30,000 miles) closer to Earth than the other side (the apogee).
When the sun, the moon, and Earth line up as the moon orbits Earth, that’s known as syzygy (definitely, something you want to keep in your back pocket for your next Scrabble match). When this Earth-Moon-Sun system occurs on the perigee side of the moon facing us, and the moon happens to be on the opposite side of Earth from the sun, we get what’s called a perigee-syzygy. That causes the moon to appear much bigger and brighter in our sky than usual, and it’s referred to as a supermoon – or more technically, a perigee moon. It will reach its closest point to the earth – a distance of 356,511km – at around 20.09 GMT.
Why was this Supermoon so special? Because the November 14 moon becomes full within about two hours of perigee, it’s going to look the biggest it has in nearly seven decades. The full moon of November 14 is not only the closest full moon of 2016 but also the closest full moon to date in the 21st century. The last time the supermoon appeared in 1948, the state of Israel was declared an independent nation, leading some to associate it with religious and political change.
Some even believed that the cosmic event could bring about the second coming – with the recent opening of Christ’s tomb only adding fuel to the fire. But all in vain, Jesus didn’t make an appearance on 14 November.
After 70 years the ‘SuperMoon’……..
Super Moon (Space): Have you ever wondered about or even tried to look at the size of the Full moons at different times throughout the year and noted the difference in size? You may ask why? The Moon goes around the earth in an elliptical orbit so it is not at the same distance from us all the time (as it’s not a circle), as a result, it appears to grow and shrink by a small amount, as seen in the skies.
And the size difference is more apparent on the day of the full moon when we see the whole disk illuminated. Now just imagine seeing a bigger full moon – it means that the moon is at perigee (point nearest to earth) or near perigee at that time. As its a bigger moon then there has to be a name to it as we humans are very much inclined towards giving names to each and everything!! They call it SuperMoon!! And this word was coined recently in late 70’s (if we talk about time scales in astronomy).
And it’s interesting to know that SuperMoon is a word which was not coined by astronomers but by an astrologer, Richard Nolle, who is credited with coining the term ‘Supermoon’. He arbitrarily defined this as a new or full moon which occurs with the moon at or near its closest approach to Earth.
But for astronomers a Supermoon is the full/new moon happening at the exact time of perigee so there is no ambiguity about the definition. Now our new definition becomes a new or full moon which occurs with the moon at its closest approach (perigee) to Earth. The technical name is the perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. Astronomers do not use the term “SuperMoon” but among the masses, it’s a catchy word!
As we have Supermoon, there has to also be ‘Micromoon’, which happens at the Full moon at the time of Apogee. And if you happen to click both the moons with the same setup, you would find a drastic change in apparent diameter which is around 14% and that’s quite large!!