(To see the most detail in this image, click on it to enlarge it!)
Super Moon at Sunset 2013 Monterey CA
Last night and tonight are a Super Moon. We went to the wharf in Monterey and I set up my tripod and controlled it with an app on my iPad. The whole set up worked beautifully. My Canon 6D has a built in wireless transmitter and creates its own wireless network with which the iPad connects. It was great and attracted a lot of attention from passersby.
This photo was taken almost exactly at sunset so the sky still had the reddish color reflected from the sunset behind me. Last year I posted some of my images from the Super Moon which you can see here. I still have quite a few images to look at from last night, and work with , so I’m likely to be posting more over the next several days. UPDATE: Here’s a link to the next Super Mood image I posted, “Clouds and the Super Moon“.
A “Super Moon” is a full moon that looks especially large. The moon appears that large because it is as much as 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than the other full moons of 2012. This occurs when the moon reaches its closest spot to the Earth at the same time it is in its full phase. The moon takes an elliptical path around the Earth with one side, or perigee, about 31,000 miles closer than the other, or apogee. As such, this is also called a “perigee moon.”
As a full moon rises, it often appears to be orange in color. The reason for this is that as it is rising, the light from the sun must pass through the most Earth’s atmosphere as it illuminates the rising moon. Some of the blue part of the spectrum gets filtered out by the Earth’s atmosphere. Then the light has to come back through the atmosphere to get to your eye. This last trip causes some reddening color change to the moon. As the moon rises further, the moon’s light passes through less of the Earth’s atmosphere and the color begins to disappear.
10 Comments on “Super Moon at Sunset”
Awesome! Glad you had such a good shot..cloudy in the valley!
Thanks Claire. It was clear that night at the wharf. Unfortunately, the next night (Sunday) was too cloudy.
Beautiful. My son and I enjoyed looking at it as well and particularly noticed how awe inspiring it was. My son also commented on the vast craters that are so large, we can see their impressions from earth!
Thank you Rachel…
I tried to see it last night but then forgot!
The picture amazing!
Thank you Laurie…
Wow. Just incredible. You are so amazing dad!
Thanks Sweetie…
Because I’m a reader of astronomy picture of the day, I was aware of the perigee. Bill and I eagerly awaited the moonrise and were properly in awe when it arrived. You caught a marvelous image.
Thank you robin. Too bad it’s cloudy tonight so I couldn’t go back out and shoot more Super Moon shots.