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[Paulie pchris00]

Tonight, when the Moon rises, the first of three so-called "Super Moons" of 2014 will be upon us, at least the first of three full "Super Moons." When I got into the hobby of astronomy six years ago, I had never heard of a "Super Moon." In the last few years, though, it seems that at least one full Moon has been called a "Super Moon" by the media. This year we have a whopping three "Super Moons." As an avid lunar observer, I absolutely detest this term. It's misleading. Naked eye, I cannot tell a difference in the size of the full Moon from month to month.

Michael Bakich has a great article on "Super Moons" in the August 2014 issue of Astronomy magazine. While Bakich states that the term "Super Moon" "beats the astronomical term: perigee syzygy Moon," I disagree. Give me the geeky name, and let folks use their Google skills.

This first of the three 2014 "Super Moons" will be Saturday, July 12. Here in Northwest Indiana, Chicago, and suburbs, the Moon will reach the moment of "full" at 6:25 AM CDST, or about a half hour before the Moon sets. Of course, being that close to the horizon, it will no doubt look bigger because of the Moon Illusion. From North America, you could justifiably call either Friday or Saturday night's Moon "full."

Curt has nice graphics showing the relative distances of the full Moons for 2013, 2014, and 2015, seen below.






For full resolution, and other Moon related graphics, go to www.curtrenz.com/moon.html.


Also see Chicago Astronomer Pre-Full Moon Party Friday 11 July 2014.

Jul 9, 2014 22:03:45 GMT -6 Centaur said:

Actually, Joe, you're doing it right this month. If your check my timetable for Full Moon risings as seen from Chicago, you'll see that the fullest rising Moon this month will come on Friday, July 11: www.CurtRenz.com/moon

The Moon will actually become its fullest this month (99.85%) when below our horizon at 07:04 CDT on Saturday morning. Of course we'd need X-ray vision to see it. When it rises on Friday it will appear 99.62% full and still waxing. When it rises on Saturday it will be only 99.27% full and already waning.

It just so happens that I observed both the June 2013 perigee (closest) full Moon and the January 2014 apogee (farthest) full Moon. While I can tell that the June Moon appears slightly larger in my images, keep in mind these were taken at 60x magnification. With the naked eye, the difference is rather negligible.






June 2013 perigee Moon observation at Valparaiso's Central Park Plaza.








January 2014 apogee Moon observation in front of the Porter County Courthouse, in the extreme polar vortex cold.


For more on this year's "Super Moons," try the following articles.

earthsky.org/tonight/july-12-supermoon-first-of-three-superrmoons

science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/10jul_supermoons/

www.universetoday.com/113004/would-the-real-supermoon-please-stand-up/

www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/a-trio-of-super-moons-grace-our-summer-skies/31491/

[Centaur]

Thanks for alerting everyone to the upcoming "Supermoons", Paulie. Great photo comparisons. Glad you found my graphics useful.

Actually the Moon will be fullest this Month for Chicaglanders at 07:04 on Saturday morning. But that would require X-ray vision, since the Moon will already have set. That 07:04 is for Chicago (not the center of the Earth as in my graphics that you posted) and for the moment of greatest illumination, not simply the time of 180° difference in ecliptical longitude from the Sun.

As can be read in my comment that you quoted, tonight (July 11-12) is actually the night this month with the fullest Moon. Today's (Friday's) moonrise will feature a Moon closer to full than tomorrow. And tonight it will continue to wax, while tomorrow night it wanes. The civil changing of date at midnight often confounds people looking at calendars and hoping to determine the night of the fullest Moon.

To end this confusion, I've been creating an annual timetable to show which date each month will feature a rising Moon for Chicagolanders with the greatest fraction of its disk illuminated. It can be seen at www.CurtRenz.com/moon

[Paulie pchris00]

Jul 11, 2014 12:45:16 GMT -6 Centaur said:

Thanks for alerting everyone to the upcoming "Supermoons", Paulie. Great photo comparisons. Glad you found my graphics useful.

Actually the Moon will be fullest this Month for Chicaglanders at 07:04 on Saturday morning. But that would require X-ray vision, since the Moon will already have set. That 07:04 is for Chicago (not the center of the Earth as in my graphics that you posted) and for the moment of greatest illumination, not simply the time of 180° difference in ecliptical longitude from the Sun.

As can be read in my comment that you quoted, tonight (July 11-12) is actually the night this month with the fullest Moon. Today's (Friday's) moonrise will feature a Moon closer to full than tomorrow. And tonight it will continue to wax, while tomorrow night it wanes. The civil changing of date at midnight often confounds people looking at calendars and hoping to determine the night of the fullest Moon.

To end this confusion, I've been creating an annual timetable to show which date each month will feature a rising Moon for Chicagolanders with the greatest fraction of its disk illuminated. It can be seen at www.CurtRenz.com/moon

When I was writing the original post, I used the time listed in the July 2014 Sky & Telescope, which I probably should have stated. I hadn't yet seen your predicted time of 7:04 yet, and later edited in that quotation from the other thread. I've verified enough of your predictions now that I will accept 7:04 over what I read in Sky & Telescope.

[Centaur]

Jul 11, 2014 13:02:22 GMT -6 Paulie pchris00 said:

Jul 11, 2014 12:45:16 GMT -6 Centaur said:

When I was writing the original post, I used the time listed in the July 2014 Sky & Telescope, which I probably should have stated. I hadn't yet seen your predicted time of 7:04 yet, and later edited in that quotation from the other thread. I've verified enough of your predictions now that I will accept 7:04 over what I read in Sky & Telescope.

Thanks for your expression of confidence, Paulie. S&T is using the traditional method for determining the peak moment of a Full Moon, i.e. 180° separation in ecliptical longitude between the Moon and Sun as viewed from the center of the Earth. Before the days of easy access to high speed computers, the moment of Full Moon had to be determined with the exhaustive use of logarithm tables, hence the simplistic definition of a Full Moon that was considered "good enough". Determining the moment of the monthly greatest fraction of the Moon's disk illuminated, especially as viewed from a specific location on Earth, was just too much work. Years ago I programmed my computer to do that job. Once that work was done, obtaining the result for each Full Moon became quite easy.