Thursday, July 14, 2022
Don't forget tonight's Perigee Moon (the best for this year, 14, July 2022)
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| Full Moon July 14 05:00 AEST. perigee July 13 19:00 (-9h, closest this year) | Full Moon December 8 14:00 AEST Moon at apogee 12th +3d20h |
July 14 is the best perigee Full Moon this year. The differences are in Full Moon size are subtle, especially if you compare tonight's Full Moon with the June 15 Full Moon which was also a perigee Full Moon.
It requires a keen eye and good memory to distinguish a perigee "super" Moon from more ordinary moons, the best contrast is with the apogee "mini" moon of December 8, even though this is not a good apogee Moon).
That doesn't mean you shouldn't try though. Daniel Fischer has been able to see the difference, you can read
his account and viewing tips here
http://earthsky.org/space/can-you-discern-supermoons-large-size-with-the-eye-an-observer-says-yes
Photographing them can be more rewarding. You can see images of perigee Moon and apogee Moon pairs from 21 Jan 2019 here and 10 August 2014 here.Tips for photographing them are here.
A full Moon at perigee has been called a "Super Moon", this is not an astronomical term (the astronomical term is perigee syzygy, but that doesn't trip off the tongue so nicely), but an astrological one first coined in 1979 (see here).
Still, it is a good excuse to get people out and looking at the Moon (although technically the Moon was full at 5 am this morning and biggest as it was closest to perigee which occurred at 7 pm on the 13th, but the sky was covered in cloud then, it will still look good tonight).
Labels: astrophotography, Moon, perigee, unaided eye
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