Supermoon

On March 19th, the moon was in its perigee - the closest point to Earth in its orbit. This coincided with the full moon, so the moon appeared very large and very bright as it rose on Saturday evening. About two hours after the moon rose, I was able to go out an photograph the moon.

"Saturday's supermoon was just 221,566 miles (356,577 kilometers) away from Earth—making the supermoon about 20 percent brighter and 15 percent bigger than a regular full moon, said Anthony Cook, astronomical observer for the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles."


Interestingly, the large size of the moon when it rises is all an optical illusion. Try looking at the moon upside down when it looks so large and the illusion disappears. Likewise, when you photograph the moon without zooming in (as I did above using a 400mm lens) you will see it as a tiny dot in your photograph.


For more on Supermoons, check out the article on National Geographic's website.

Tweet from @Astro_Ron in Kazakhstan

@Astro_Ron: #ToOrbit Spent today checking out our spacecraft called "Gagarin" at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Launch is set for the morning of April 4th. This launch will honor the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's spaceflight, making him the first human in space. They will dock with the ISS on the evening of April 6th.

Tweet from @Astro_Ron

@Astro_Ron: Leave 4 Kazakhstan tomorrow Once there will use hashtag #ToOrbit On launchday Dan Burbank will tweet 4 me.