Denise

Moderator
SUPER moon coming up on the 6th of May 2012, any body going to e watching?

Extreme Super Moon on May 6th
Apr 24, 2012; 6:00 AM ET

Blog authored by AccuWeather Astronomy expert on Facebook, Daniel Vogler.

On May 6, 2012 we will have the closest lunar perigee of the year to coincide with a full moon, known as an Extreme Super Moon. What is a Super Moon you ask? It's when the moon gets to its closest point to Earth coinciding with a syzygy within 90% or greater of its mean perigee. To calculate this, we need some numbers. We can either use this years numbers or an easier route would to use average mean perigee and apogee distances. But why do that?

Using the Lunar Perigee and Apogee Calculator website, we see that the closest perigee of 2012 is May 6 @ 356,953 km. The farthest apogee is 13 days later on May 19th @ 406,450 km. Subtracting the distance gives you 49,497 km. So 90% of that would be 44,547 km. Any syzygy that's closer than 406,450 - 44,547 or 361,903 km would be by definition a Super Moon, in accordance to Richard Nolle, the astrologer gets credit for coining the phrase.

At 100% (its closest approach of the year) it is known as an Extreme Super Moon. The "Extreme" has been misguided throughout the internet, where people think it only happens every 17 years, which is not true. It happens every year on the closest Super Moon of the year, only the distances vary from year to year. (For example: last years Extreme Super Moon was 400 km closer than this years).

What makes this event stand out is not the distance that it gets, rather the timing.

At 3:34 UTC, the Moon will be at full moon syzygy. Then only TWO minutes later, at 3:36 UTC, the Moon will be at its closest point, a perigee at roughly 356,900 km. I looked back at other Super Moon data and cannot find any closer than that timing-wise, remarkable!

So lets talk about what this will bring us. As you all know, the tide is controlled by the gravitational pull of the Moon and its distance and position determines how much the tide rises and falls.......

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weathe...ay-6th-1/64405
 

Boiling Frog

Truth Activist
Thank you for informing us of super Moon, I'm always watching the skies any chance I get this. Apparently last year's was much larger than this year's, as the moon is closer last year.
 

Denise

Moderator
SuperMoon 2012 - May 6, 2012

More on the super moon:

SuperMoon 2012 - definitely not to be associated with natural disasters in any way

May 02, 2012 11:12AM

  • SuperMoon to appear on Sunday night May 6, 2012
  • Will be 16 per cent brighter than usual
  • Nothing to be alarmed about

608789-super-moon.jpg

Last year's SuperMoon was a tiny bit bigger than this year's will be. Picture: NASA NASA

DOOMSAYERS and academics, prepare for battle.

It's that time of year again when the moon looks a little bigger and sends witches, Morris dancers and homeopaths scurrying for cover and a cold flannel.

On the other side of the fence, cranky astronomers spend their day brushing off questions from journalists about why the lunar perigee seems to coincide with natural disasters.

Hello, Moonageddon. Or SuperMoon, if you prefer, the term coined by astrologer Richard Nolle back in 1979.

On Sunday in Australia at 1.30pm (eastern time), the moon will be just 356,955km away from the Earth, one of its closest brushes in 18 years.

Coincidentally, it will also be a full moon that night, the exact conditions under which we're allowed to use Nolle's "SuperMoon" moniker.

Astronomers prefer to call it perigee-syzygy.

And they definitely don't want Earthlings to link its appearance last year to Japan's 9.0 earthquake, which occurred just a week before a SuperMoon.

Or the New England hurricane in 1938, or the Hunter Valley floods of 1955, both of which happened within days of a perigee-syzygy.

Science says No.

But in a sense, the SuperMoon is magical, because if you view it while it's on the horizon, through some trees or near a building, it's, well, spectacular.

Bigger and brighter, for reasons that even astronomers and psychologists are yet to explain.

All that will happen is the moon will appear 16 per cent brighter and exert 42 per cent more influence on the tides due to its increased gravitational force.

And websites and newspapers will call for and run loads of beautiful free shots from amateur photographers, like this:

Super Moon...

619497-super-moon.jpg

The lunar perigee in 2008. This year's will be even bigger.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sc...#ixzz1tgfgSN7E
 

100th Monkey

New member
I've got my telescope ready and it's pointed at the sky. Only wish I had a camera to attached to it so I could film super Moon, but I'm planning on watching it.
 

Truth Vibrations

New member
I know where I'm gona be...on my front porch watching the moon in the sky. Perfect time to go to the moon if you have a rocketship!
 

SUNGAZER

New member
It's looking pretty good out there right now! Tomorrow should be even better. Big and bright and SUPER, lol!
 
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