Tuesday, February 19, 2019

February 2019 Supermoon

Coming up in a couple of days is the second "supermoon" of 2019. The first was on January 21. A supermoon isn't really super. It just refers to the Moon in its full phase when it happens to be slightly closer to Earth. Since the Moon takes a slightly elliptical path around Earth, there are times when it is slightly closer and times when it is slightly farther away. When it's slightly closer it will appear slightly larger and brighter in the sky. SLIGHTLY. In fact, unless you observe the Moon very carefully and very often, you are unlikely to notice any difference in the Moon's size when it is a supermoon.

Full Moon by Kiefer. from Frankfurt, Germany - 07.Sep.2014
People have a tendency to convince themselves the Moon is extra big but that is only because they are told the Moon is slightly larger. If you weren't told the Moon was appearing slightly larger, you wouldn't think anything of it. 

By all means go out and look at the Moon in February, but ignore all the hype and flat out lies about the Moon being HUGE in the sky. Supermoons happen all the time. They are real events, but the change in the Moon's size on the sky is only a very slight change. 

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