Tuesday, May 8. 2012
"Super moon" misconceptions
There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding regarding the "super moon" event that took place on 5/6 May. A "super moon" is a non-technical term for when the elliptical orbit of the Moon brings it closest to the Earth - astronomers call that position the perigee.
However, the resultant change in size is not enough to produce much of a visually discernible difference. The awesome looking photos being spread on Facebook, news sites and elsewhere, where the Moon appears several times larger, are the result of common depth-of-field photographic techniques and/or post-editing. Also, it may help to keep in mind that the Moon appears larger when near the horizon thanks to an illusion called the "Moon illusion".
Full Moons are beautiful though
However, the resultant change in size is not enough to produce much of a visually discernible difference. The awesome looking photos being spread on Facebook, news sites and elsewhere, where the Moon appears several times larger, are the result of common depth-of-field photographic techniques and/or post-editing. Also, it may help to keep in mind that the Moon appears larger when near the horizon thanks to an illusion called the "Moon illusion".
Full Moons are beautiful though