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More supermoon hype...

ollypenrice

By ollypenrice
in The Astro Lounge

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Posted

I see that the forthcoming 'supermoon' is being touted on social media. A quick calculation suggests that it will be a whopping 2.3% larger in apparent diameter than last month. Given that it will fit behind a pencil held at arm's length I think this increase might prove visually underwhelming... :crybaby2:

Olly

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Timebandit

Timebandit

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19 minutes ago, swamp thing said:

Wow!! a whole 2.3%? :icon_eek:

On a side note, if it gets people outside and looking up............can't be a bad thing. :) 

 

 

Is the Dob Mob softening in their old age. I thought the Moon was classed as the devil's light bulb?. 

Maybe it's because they have a secret refractor man in their mists who likes taking AP pictures of the Moon?

 

 

 

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swamp thing

swamp thing

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1 hour ago, Timebandit said:

 

 

Is the Dob Mob softening in their old age. I thought the Moon was classed as the devil's light bulb?. 

Maybe it's because they have a secret refractor man in their mists who likes taking AP pictures of the Moon?

 

 

 

I actually enjoy observing the moon.  :hiding:

Sssssh!!........It was my Apo he used to take the pic :ph34r:

:evil62:

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Jessun

Jessun

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6 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

I see that the forthcoming 'supermoon' is being touted on social media.

That in itself is rather a positive thing I'd say. No one in the target audience is calculating the resolution benefits for imaging...

If it can get people interested in the grander scheme of things, just a tad past Instagram, I'm all for it.

Personally, I detest that pesky orb at any size ;-) Ok, it was good for evolution, but now it can jog on...

/Jesper

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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1 hour ago, Jessun said:

That in itself is rather a positive thing I'd say. No one in the target audience is calculating the resolution benefits for imaging...

If it can get people interested in the grander scheme of things, just a tad past Instagram, I'm all for it.

Personally, I detest that pesky orb at any size ;-) Ok, it was good for evolution, but now it can jog on...

/Jesper

:icon_mrgreen::hello2:

Olly

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AKB

AKB

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8 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

A quick calculation suggests that it will be a whopping 2.3% larger

I read the hype too, and yesterday (when it was actually clear) I looked at it through my Telrad and decided it might be the difference between the inner and outer edge of the illuminated half-degree ring... so gave up.

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Uplooker

Uplooker

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Haha, I laughed about this myself. Someone at work asked if I would be observing the "super" moon. "Meh" was my reply. "Why not", because it would be hard to notice any difference between this full moon and the full moon we last month and the one before that and the one before that ?

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carastro

carastro

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They always hype up these things, same as the meteor showers which are always over-rated.  After the first meteor shower I watched I decided it wasn't worth bothering with again.  I guess if you want to set up a camera over several hours if might be worth doing I suppose. 

Carole 

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John

John

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58 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

Moon certainly looking very bright tonight in T.    :icon_biggrin:

Yes, I've been looking at it with my 11x70 binoculars. Very bright but still nice surface contrasts. The rays eminating from the major craters are striking and extend for many KM across the surface. The dark Grimaldi basin is striking close to the western limb.

Managed to to spot the Hyades cluster nearby and the Pleiades and also M31 despite the 15% brighter lunar glow tonight.

"Binoculars go where scopes fear to tread" :grin:

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The Admiral

The Admiral

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I'm afraid the cynic in me always makes me frown upon the over-hype that precedes such events. As said before, the apparent size of the Moon last night is really little different to the previous full Moon, and the one before that. I agree it is good if we can get the general public aware, and possibly even interested, in the night sky, but this sort of hype is more than likely to be counter-productive. People will go and look, with high expectations about what they are about to observe, only to be thoroughly disappointed and think the whole exercise was a waste of time. As Carole says, the same is true with meteor showers. I think the public's perception of a meteor shower will be akin to what they might see on firework night, but alas having stood in the cold for a short while and not seeing a darned thing, are likely to return disgruntled with little regard for astronomical events.

When I looked up supermoon, just to see what all the fuss was supposed to be about, I read that the one last year, 2016 was the closest supermoon since January 26, 1948, and will not be surpassed until November 25, 2034. Now that does seem to be a point worth noting, but I'm a little confused why the Moon's closest approach should vary over time, beyond the variation due to its elliptical orbit.

Ian

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I think that what bugs me is that astronomy doesn't need hype. For heaven's sake, it deals with the highest energies, the densest masses, the most alarming velocities, the longest distances and the oldest times as its daily bread. So the moon is going to be a tiny bit bigger, visually, than last time? Wow. Woo Woo. Well I'm really sorry that the Veil Nebula's expansion, year on year, doesn't lead to a 'superveil' but I think it's pretty damned super none the less.

Olly

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StuartJPP

StuartJPP

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7 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

I think that what bugs me is that astronomy doesn't need hype. For heaven's sake, it deals with the highest energies, the densest masses, the most alarming velocities, the longest distances and the oldest times as its daily bread. So the moon is going to be a tiny bit bigger, visually, than last time? Wow. Woo Woo. Well I'm really sorry that the Veil Nebula's expansion, year on year, doesn't lead to a 'superveil' but I think it's pretty damned super none the less.

Olly

People are only interested in the most superlative superlatives for the most trivial of trivial reasons...

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