Last night we drove to a spot outside of the city, away from the lights, to see the biggest moon we’ll probably ever see.
Well, the moon didn’t actually get bigger but it got closer. The phenomenon known as the perigee moon made it look 14% bigger and 30% brighter than when it’s furthest from our planet. It was a mere 356,400 km away instead of its usual 384,000. It was gorgeous. And we were very fortunate to see it for about 15 minutes in one of the few spots on the sky that wasn’t overcast last night.
I popped some popcorn before we left and we sat back in the truck, munched our treat and watched the show. Not only was it the closest the moon came to us this year, astronomers say it’s the closest the moon will get to earth for about the next 40 years. Experts have dumbed the terminology down for us mere mortals until it’s now just known as a supermoon. It made for a beautiful show in the sky.
I have to confess that astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson kinda took the shine out of this moon for me, when he tweeted that it was like a 16″ pizza instead of the usual 15″ pie, so everybody just simmadownow (er, my words, not his). I think any time people stop and notice something bigger than ourselves, it’s a good thing, right? Nice pic, Lisa!