Surreal Moon
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Jerry Lodriguss
(Catching the Light)
Big, bright, and beautiful, a Full Moon near perigee,
the closest point in its
elliptical orbit
around
our fair planet, rose on August 10.
This
remarkable picture records the scene
with a dreamlike
quality from the east coast of the United States.
The picture is actually a
composite of 10 digital frames made with exposures
from 1/500th second to 1 second long,
preserving contrast and detail over a
much wider than normal
range of brightness.
At a perigee distance of a mere 356,896 kilometers,
August's Full Moon was the closest, and so the largest and most super,
of the three Full Moons nearest perigee in 2014 now popularly
known as supermoons.
But if you missed August's super supermoon,
the next not-quite-so supermoon will be September 8.
Then, near the full lunar phase the
Moon's
perigee will be
a slightly more distant 358,387 kilometers.
That's only
about 0.4 percent less super (farther and smaller)
than the super supermoon.