Super moon tonight (nearest to earth)

Just had a thought about all this Supermoon stuff and all the resulting pictures on different websites.

The moon isn't actually bigger. It is an optical illusion caused by the brain. As a result when you take a picture of it isn't it simply a case of looking the same as any other full moon picture?

As far as I am aware the effect of looking bigger is a result of the brains interpretation of the moon against a term of reference, such as a building or horizon, taken in isolation in a shot the brain just looks at it and goes meh same size (not knocking any of these shots btw since they're good) :)
 
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The "super" moon thing is because the moon actually is closer to Earth. Literally. The orbit is slightly elliptical and this means it physically is closer to Earth. This happens once a month - and last night was that once a month.

Last night was also a Full-moon. This happens once a month also.

The two events only coincide about once a year. The next time two two happen at the same time will be in Aug 2014.
 
The moon isn't actually bigger. It is an optical illusion caused by the brain. As a result when you take a picture of it isn't it simply a case of looking the same as any other full moon picture?

As far as I am aware the effect of looking bigger is a result of the brains interpretation of the moon against a term of reference, such as a building or horizon, taken in isolation in a shot the brain just looks at it and goes meh same size (not knocking any of these shots btw since they're good) :)

borrow this from wiki as it would be quicker to do and it explain it clearly.

A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the lunar disk as seen from Earth. The technical name is the perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. The term "supermoon" is not astronomical, but originated in modern astrology. The association of the Moon with both oceanic and crustal tides has led to claims that the supermoon phenomenon may be associated with increased risk of events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but the evidence of such a link is widely held to be unconvincing.

The most recent occurrence was on June 23, 2013, as the closest and largest full moon of the year and the Moon’s closest encounter with Earth for all of 2013. It will not be so close again until August 10, 2014.

Supermoons occur about once every 14 full moons in a full moon cycle.

The Moon's distance varies each month between approximately 357,000 kilometers (222,000 mi) and 406,000 km (252,000 mi) due to its elliptical orbit around the Earth (distances given are center-to-center).

According to NASA, a full moon at perigee is up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than one at its farthest point, or apogee. The full Moon occurring less than one hour away from perigee is a near-perfect coincidence that happens only every 18 years or so.

Terminology

The name SuperMoon was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, arbitrarily defined as:

...a new or full moon which occurs with the Moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee). In short, Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth.

The term supermoon is not used within the astronomical community, which use the term perigee-syzygy or perigee moon. Perigee is the point at which the Moon is closest in its orbit to the Earth, and syzygy is a full or new moon, when the Earth, the Moon and the Sun are aligned. Hence, a supermoon can be regarded as a combination of the two, although they do not perfectly coincide each time. On average, about once a year the moon becomes full within a few hours of perigee.
 
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Slightly late,

XIjRyFY.jpg


100-400L @400, Cropped, 1/60, f10, ISO 100

kd
 
borrow this from wiki as it would be quicker to do and it explain it clearly.

A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the lunar disk as seen from Earth. The technical name is the perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. The term "supermoon" is not astronomical, but originated in modern astrology. The association of the Moon with both oceanic and crustal tides has led to claims that the supermoon phenomenon may be associated with increased risk of events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but the evidence of such a link is widely held to be unconvincing.

The most recent occurrence was on June 23, 2013, as the closest and largest full moon of the year and the Moon’s closest encounter with Earth for all of 2013. It will not be so close again until August 10, 2014.

Supermoons occur about once every 14 full moons in a full moon cycle.

The Moon's distance varies each month between approximately 357,000 kilometers (222,000 mi) and 406,000 km (252,000 mi) due to its elliptical orbit around the Earth (distances given are center-to-center).

According to NASA, a full moon at perigee is up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than one at its farthest point, or apogee. The full Moon occurring less than one hour away from perigee is a near-perfect coincidence that happens only every 18 years or so.

Terminology

The name SuperMoon was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, arbitrarily defined as:

...a new or full moon which occurs with the Moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee). In short, Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth.

The term supermoon is not used within the astronomical community, which use the term perigee-syzygy or perigee moon. Perigee is the point at which the Moon is closest in its orbit to the Earth, and syzygy is a full or new moon, when the Earth, the Moon and the Sun are aligned. Hence, a supermoon can be regarded as a combination of the two, although they do not perfectly coincide each time. On average, about once a year the moon becomes full within a few hours of perigee.

Ah thanks for clearing that up - must admit celestial mechanics isn't something I understand!

Clearly it is slightly bigger and slightly brighter, but does my point still stand - i.e without the frame of reference to a known object against which you can measure it, aren't these photographs like other photographs of the full moon?

Edit - has a bit of think about this, what I'm trying to establish, is that if you take a shot with the 'super moon' in it such a city scape or landscape, does the shot actually give the impression that the moon is bigger (without any photoshop trickery) or is the effect confined to a real life viewing rather than a photograph (if that makes sense?)
 
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I think the super moon is supposed to be between 15-20% larger, which I would assume means that without a point of reference when compared to a normal moon, the supoer moon would need to be cropped less to get the relative size, thus more detail in the shot. The additional light should provide a minor advantage in terms of a faster shutter speed/less blurriness (?)
 
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