A misty sky and a Cincinnati area “Supermoon” photo
Posted By RichC on March 20, 2011
Although my ‘supermoon’ photo from Saturday night isn’t one of the better ones from across the country, I did head outside to admire the “brightest moon since 1993.” The moon appear in its full phase just 50 minutes shy of the orbit that brings it closest to the earth … perigee. According to what I’ve been reading, this will not happen again until 2029?
One of the interesting “sailing” related influences of a full moon is its effect on the ocean tides. When the moon is full the ocean tides are their largest and when the earth, moon and sun are aligned during a lunar perigee, the tidal force is even stronger; it is at this time that we experience more extreme high and low tides … although the percentage of increase is relatively small and rarely noticed.
The name SuperMoon was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979 and 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.”
What appears to be an enormous full moon begins to rise over Grand Rapids, Michigan
taken on March 19, 2011. — CREDIT: Susan Wagener
Tony Hoffman in New York City snapped this montage of photos as a plane crosses the
disk of the full moon on March 19, 2011 during"supermoon." — CREDIT: Tony Hoffman
The full moon is seen as it rises near the Lincoln Memorial, Saturday, March 19, 2011,
in Washington DC. — Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
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