thousandsofcookies
perigee full moon
A supermoon occurs when the full Moon is near perigee, its closest point to Earth, so it appears a little larger and brighter than usual. At the extreme it can look about 14 percent larger and up to around 30 percent brighter than a full Moon at its greatest distance. The term supermoon is not a strict scientific label, and without a side-by-side comparison the difference is often hard to see with the naked eye. The stronger gravitational pull slightly amplifies the so-called spring tides, periods of especially pronounced tides when high tides are higher and low tides are lower because the Sun, Earth, and Moon are nearly aligned and their forces combine. This happens around full Moon and new Moon, and the extra boost from a supermoon is only small.
The dark patches on the lunar disk are the maria, broad lava plains of iron-rich basalt that reflect less light than the bright highlands made of anorthositic rock. Several prominent examples are easy to identify, the wide Mare Imbrium, the expansive Oceanus Procellarum beside it, the round basins Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis, and the isolated Mare Crisium near the edge. Very striking is the bright crater Tycho with its ray system that sends fine light streaks across much of the southern hemisphere, and another ray-rich landmark is Copernicus a little north of the center.
perigee full moon
A supermoon occurs when the full Moon is near perigee, its closest point to Earth, so it appears a little larger and brighter than usual. At the extreme it can look about 14 percent larger and up to around 30 percent brighter than a full Moon at its greatest distance. The term supermoon is not a strict scientific label, and without a side-by-side comparison the difference is often hard to see with the naked eye. The stronger gravitational pull slightly amplifies the so-called spring tides, periods of especially pronounced tides when high tides are higher and low tides are lower because the Sun, Earth, and Moon are nearly aligned and their forces combine. This happens around full Moon and new Moon, and the extra boost from a supermoon is only small.
The dark patches on the lunar disk are the maria, broad lava plains of iron-rich basalt that reflect less light than the bright highlands made of anorthositic rock. Several prominent examples are easy to identify, the wide Mare Imbrium, the expansive Oceanus Procellarum beside it, the round basins Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis, and the isolated Mare Crisium near the edge. Very striking is the bright crater Tycho with its ray system that sends fine light streaks across much of the southern hemisphere, and another ray-rich landmark is Copernicus a little north of the center.