Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Full Moonrise

NASA ^ | May 05, 2012 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Rising as the Sun sets, tonight's Full Moon could be hard to miss. Remarkably, its exact full phase (May 6 03:36 UT) will occur less than two minutes after it reaches perigee, the closest point to Earth in the Moon's orbit, making it the largest Full Moon of 2012. The Full Perigee Moon will appear to be some 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than a Full Moon near apogee, the most distant point in the elliptical lunar orbit. In comparison, though, it will appear less than 1 percent larger and almost as bright as April's Full Moon, captured in this telephoto image rising over suburban Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. For that lunation, Full Moon and perigee were about 21 hours apart. Of course, if you manage to miss May's Full Perigee Moon, make a note on your calendar. Your next chance to see a Full Moon close to perigee, will be next year on June 23.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit & Copyright: Robert Arn]

[SunkenCiv]

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[Uncle Lonny]

WE ALL GONNA DIE!

[SunkenCiv]

and thanks Las Vegas Dave!

‘Supermoon’ May Outshine Meteor Shower This Weekend
By Tariq Malik | SPACE.com – Wed, May 2, 2012
http://news.yahoo.com/supermoon-may-outshine-meteor-shower-weekend-201132286.html

[cripplecreek]

Again.

[Conservative4Ever]

Still. :-)

[geologist]

A ‘SUPER’ moon, it is called.!

[SunkenCiv]

I remember those from high school.

[geologist]

When I was in high school it was called the ‘harvest’ moon ... many lived on farms where I was.

[TheOldLady]

I remember those from high school.

So do I, along with Chinese fire drills, drag racing, and ditching school. Stop that at once, Mr. Civilizations!

[left that other site]

Looks like half a Michael Moore Moon.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

IT’S HEADING RIGHT FOR US!

[moose07]

"Looks like half a Michael Moore Moon."

LOLOL!
Please excuse the hilarity.

[left that other site]

Lily White, Cratered, and Quite Immense!

[dr_lew]

At the photographer's website he says, "Most of my work, through aesthetic or technical reason, has been highly processed or combined with other images - but only to give a representation of what a person could experience if they were there at the time, not to create a record of an unimaginable vista."

After trying to place this scene with Google Maps, and noticing what I thought were some funky perspective issues, I noticed this:

So, not to make any specific accusations, all bets are off.

[mikrofon]

[SunkenCiv]

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

[dr_lew]

Here's something quantitative. The disk of the moon is about .01 radians in diameter, ( 33 arcminutes at moonrise over Fort Collins on April 7, 2012, according to my Starry Night software ) and as such provides a standard measure for any photo in which it appears. On my screen the disk measures 14 cm in this photo at hi-res. To the lower right in hi-res you can see that that red light tops a spherical water tower.

Say it is 100 ft tall ( A modest height for one of these. ) It measures about 1 cm on my screen, so using the moon as a standard, we can easily calculate that it must be 100ft X 14/0.01 ~= 26 miles away. My Starry Night software gives the azimuth of the rising moon as 112 degrees ( i.e. ESE ) so we may place the water tower in Greeley by this calculation. Of course, this is not credible. In other words, the moon is way too big for this scene.

Again, I make no asseverations, as it's only prudent to allow that I may be mistaken in all this.

[RegulatorCountry]

I grew up among farms, too. My paternsl grandparents owned a farm.

We never saw a Harvest Moon in May, lol.