To the best of my ability I write about my experience of the Universe Past, Present and Future
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Don't miss the remaining "supermoons" of 2016
I've been to Glastonbury Tor in England before but never at night with a harvest moon. Amazing!
Glastonbury Tor is built upon the fabled Isle of Avalon of King Arthur and Merlin's time. But now, the lake around the island is dried up and where the lake is is all farmland or grasslands feeding English Sheep. Beautiful area!
Missed
this past weekend’s spectacular supermoon views? Don’t despair, as
there are two more supermoons on the horizon before the end of 2016.
The
“supermoon” is a relatively modern concept, commonly referring to a new
or full moon that is within 90 percent of its closest approach to Earth
in a given orbit. Most recently, it’s evolved to refer more broadly to a
full moon that is closer to Earth than average, according to NASA.
More specifically, remember that the moon’s orbit is
elliptical -- meaning that one side is about 30,000 miles closer to
Earth than the other. When the Earth, moon and sun line up as the moon
orbits Earth, with the moon on the opposite side of the Earth from the
sun, those conditions produce a supermoon, NASA says.
There are two more chances to witness this physical spectacle this calendar year: Nov. 14 and Dec. 14.
Both dates are notable for different reasons.
Dec.
14’s supermoon will obscure views of the normally impressive Geminid
meteor shower, “transforming the usually fantastic Geminids into an
astronomical footnote,” NASA says.
Nov. 14’s supermoon is the
closest full moon to date in this century, making it the real headliner
of this year. The full moon won’t come this close to our planet until
2034, according to NASA.
A supermoon can be as much as 14 percent
bigger and 30 percent brighter than an apogee full moon, though
sometimes that difference is hard to detect when the moon is masked by
clouds or light pollution.
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