The Full Moon of 2021
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Soumyadeep Mukherjee
Every Full Moon of 2021 shines in this year-spanning astrophoto project,
a composite portrait of
the familiar lunar nearside at each brightest
lunar phase.
Arranged by moonth,
the year progresses in stripes beginning at the top.
Taken with the same camera and lens the stripes are from Full Moon
images all combined at the same pixel scale.
The stripes still looked mismatched, but they show
that the Full Moon's angular size changes throughout the year
depending on its
distance from Kolkata, India, planet Earth.
The calendar month,
a full moon name, distance in kilometers, and angular
size is indicated for each stripe.
Angular size is given in minutes of arc corresponding to 1/60th of a degree.
The largest Full Moon is
near a perigee or closest approach
in May.
The smallest is
near an apogee,
the most distant Full Moon in December.
Of course the full moons of
May and November
also slid into Earth's shadow
during 2021's two lunar eclipses.