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Pictures of "supermoon"

Mar 20, 2011#1

fade

Hey,

I took these through my little reflector telescope last night. I don't know if anyone is interested, but here they are. They differ by exposure, ISO settings, and magnification.

Mar 20, 2011#2

phil

IB4 that's no moon, that's a supermoon.

Mar 20, 2011#3

Hailey Knight

That's amazing.

Mar 20, 2011#4

Dave

I wish I were good at Photoshop.

Cool pictures, though!

Mar 20, 2011#5

Baerdog

Lousy supermoon was hidden by superclouds where I was.

*grumble*

Mar 20, 2011#6

phil

Baerdog said:
Lousy supermoon was hidden by superclouds where I was.

*grumble*

Looked the same to me.

Mar 20, 2011#7

fade

It wasn't really perceptibly bigger, but it certainly seemed a lot brighter. I've had my head in the books lately, so I hadn't heard about it. What prompted me to look it up was that it woke me up two nights ago. I thought someone was shining a flashlight in my eyes. last night was the official perigee, but it'll still be pretty super tonight.

Mar 20, 2011#8

Shakey

Very cool. It was too cloudy last night to see it, but the night before I noticed it was a lot brighter than normal. Probably going to be cloudy tonight again too.

Mar 20, 2011#9

Mathias

fade said:
It wasn't really perceptibly bigger, but it certainly seemed a lot brighter. I've had my head in the books lately, so I hadn't heard about it. What prompted me to look it up was that it woke me up two nights ago. I thought someone was shining a flashlight in my eyes. last night was the official perigee, but it'll still be pretty super tonight.

Are we kindred spirits or something? I was out last night with the old reflector too. It was insanely clear and still and the moon was indeed really bright.

Mar 20, 2011#10

Neon Pirate

Fantastic pictures! Sat out by the fire watching but was enjoying pondering it too much to limp in for a camera.

Mar 20, 2011#11

redthirtyone

If you can get pictures at moonrise or moonset, perhaps with some skyline for scale, it might be almost as impressive as some people expected it to be.

Pretty cool & pretty bright, sure. But it was no three wolf moon that's fer sure.

Mar 20, 2011#12

fade

Well, it didn't look much bigger, certainly. I read something like 20%.

Fun fact (and not saying you don't know this, red 31, just rambling): Where the moon is in the sky doesn't really matter, though. Beware the famous Moon illusion. The moon above you is the same size as the one on the horizon, but because of the way the animal brain maps the sky, it looks much larger at the horizon. You can prove it to yourself by tracing it on a piece of paper at the horizon and then directly above you. Even when you know, you can't shake the illusion, either. It still looks way bigger at the horizon.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/b...hy-does-the-moon-look-so-huge-on-the-horizon/

Mar 20, 2011#13

MindDetective

I read it would only be 3-4% bigger, actually, in comparison to an average distance from the Earth. The whole "supermoon" was completely blown out of proportion (pun not intended) This was not in response to the moon-illusion, thing. I'm talking about a measurable size increase rather than a perceptual one.

Mar 20, 2011#14

fade

Right, I saw something about that, too. I never got a good answer on it. Lifehacker had 20%, and even Phil Plait seemed a bit to visceral to trust on this one. I didn't search much further. Blown out of proportion or not, I can't deny it was a lot brighter.

Mar 20, 2011#15

Krisken

Baerdog said:
Lousy supermoon was hidden by superclouds where I was.

*grumble*

We call that a stealth Supermoon.

Mar 20, 2011#16

Baerdog

Krisken said:
We call that a stealth Supermoon.

That's no moon! It's miles and miles of cloud cover.

Mar 20, 2011#17

Chad Sexington

fade said:
Well, it didn't look much bigger, certainly. I read something like 20%.

Fun fact (and not saying you don't know this, red 31, just rambling): Where the moon is in the sky doesn't really matter, though. Beware the famous Moon illusion. The moon above you is the same size as the one on the horizon, but because of the way the animal brain maps the sky, it looks much larger at the horizon. You can prove it to yourself by tracing it on a piece of paper at the horizon and then directly above you. Even when you know, you can't shake the illusion, either. It still looks way bigger at the horizon.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/b...hy-does-the-moon-look-so-huge-on-the-horizon/

A more ridiculous way to show yourself this is to bend over and look at the moon upside-down through your legs. Not that I would do this.

Mar 20, 2011#18

redthirtyone

fade said:
Well, it didn't look much bigger, certainly. I read something like 20%.

Fun fact (and not saying you don't know this, red 31, just rambling): Where the moon is in the sky doesn't really matter, though. Beware the famous Moon illusion. The moon above you is the same size as the one on the horizon, but because of the way the animal brain maps the sky, it looks much larger at the horizon. You can prove it to yourself by tracing it on a piece of paper at the horizon and then directly above you. Even when you know, you can't shake the illusion, either. It still looks way bigger at the horizon.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/b...hy-does-the-moon-look-so-huge-on-the-horizon/

Well i was taking the illusion into account when I said moonrise/set. But it sounds like what we're talking about here is the fact that said illusion would be impossible to photograph because the illusion is due to human processing as opposed to actual physical refraction.

Anyways, it was more a comment to the fact that I'd heard several friends complaining that last night's moon wasn't THAT impressive. As if they were expecting some kind of moon out of some sci-fi setting that takes up a quadrant of the sky & is so close you can actually see the colonies of ewoks.

Mar 20, 2011#19

fade

I did see some kid fly a bike across it.

Mar 20, 2011#20

SpecialKO

Great job, fade! Unfortunately, I too was denied by cloud cover, so I'll have to live vicariously through your pictures.

Mar 20, 2011#21

fade

Thanks.

Does anyone have a good way to take these photos? I literally just held the camera lens up to the eyepiece.

Mar 20, 2011#22

klew

Here's what I got using the max zoom from my camera. There were trees in the way, so I couldn't get any shots until it was higher in the sky, but I managed to get a sequence before the Moon was obscured by sky-filling clouds for the rest of the night. (link to full size image here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/klew97/5543652782/sizes/o)

Added at: 21:40

fade said:
Thanks.

Does anyone have a good way to take these photos? I literally just held the camera lens up to the eyepiece.

Easiest way is to find a coupler adapter for your particular camera and telescope, if both items have screw threads. If not, you may have to look deeper. I will recommend starting at these places.

http://www.scopecity.com
http://www.scopetronix.com

Mar 20, 2011#23

linglingface

Nice photos! it was soooo pretty last night!

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