Gigantic Full Worm Moon this Weekend

[PhanthomJay]

Please join with me this Sunday or Monday when the full moon of the vernal equinox rises over the east horizon just around or after sunset. Finally it will prove that the full moon appears biggest and brightest when it rises over the horizon while at Perigee, its closest approach to Earth. The huger appearing moon is a combination of the 'moon illusion' effect at the horizon plus its 13 percent or so greater apparent size than when at apogee. The moon will appear significantly very noticably larger than a full moon overhead at apogee, a fact little noted in the literature. Watch for it!

 

[DaveC426913]

I told you I would be nearby... waiting ...

 

[PhanthomJay]

A six month wait..thanks! Please fetch out your camera and head for Home Depot. No camera tricks, please. The camera won't show the illusion, but it surely should pick up the perigee effect. Funny, though, you might need a side by side comparison of apogee/perigee moons to pick up the perigee effect difference in size, whereas in the viewing itself on the horizon , the combined effects should be quite noticeable, I imagine.

 

[DaveC426913]

Please fetch out your camera and head for Home Depot.

I'd be happy to, but there's no point - there's way to calibrate or correlate the image.

 

[ashishsinghal]

Are there any consequences due to this event. Some news channels say that the tsunami and earthquake in Japan are partially caused by this. They say that older incidents of "huge moon" have also accompanied such disasters. Is this true?

 

[DaveC426913]

Are there any consequences due to this event. Some news channels say that the tsunami and earthquake in Japan are partially caused by this. They say that older incidents of "huge moon" have also accompanied such disasters. Is this true?

No. Those news channels get their science from chicken bones and Aztec sacrifical rituals.

 

[DLuckyE]

I don't see why the moon can't cause Earth quakes, the moon pulls on the Earth so why wouldn't it be possible for this pull to cause an earthquake? Of course any earthquake caused would've gone anyhow, and would've been even stronger then if it took longer before triggered.

Or am I totally off?

 

[russ_watters]

I don't see why the moon can't cause Earth quakes, the moon pulls on the Earth so why wouldn't it be possible for this pull to cause an earthquake? Of course any earthquake caused would've gone anyhow, and would've been even stronger then if it took longer before triggered.

Or am I totally off?

The moon is continuously tugging on the earth, so it certainly can have an impact on plate tectonics. But that's not the same as saying that when the moon is ever so slightly closer when full, it would cause more. Note, the Japan earthquake was two weeks ago. It was on the complete opposite side of the Earth from where it is now!

 

[FtlIsAwesome]

Question.
What's "Worm" supposed to mean in the title?

 

[PhanthomJay]

Question.
What's "Worm" supposed to mean in the title?

http://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names/

The moon was very bright and rather big tonight, but I viewed it when it was about 20 degrees above the horizon, no illusion effect, so it was far from the huge moon I was expecting. Maybe tomorrow...

 

[FtlIsAwesome]

Ah. Ok.
I have so much to learn...

 

[DaveC426913]

Here's a pic from tonight.

Feel free to compare it to the pic of the harvest moon I took back on Sept 25.

 

[DaveC426913]

I did not know this:

The first- or last-quarter moon is not one half as bright as a full moon
... at first quarter, the moon appears only one eleventh as bright as when it's full.

A 95-percent illuminated moon appears half as bright as a full moon
Believe it or not, the moon is half as bright as a full moon about 2.4 days before and after a full moon. Even though about 95 percent of the moon is illuminated at this time, and to most casual observers it might still look like a "full" moon, its brightness is roughly 0.7 magnitudes less than at full phase, making it appear one-half as bright.

http://www.space.com/11163-supermoon-biggest-full-moon-2011.html

 

[PhanthomJay]

Here's a pic from tonight.

Feel free to compare it to the pic of the harvest moon I took back on Sept 25.

Thanks for taking the time to take the photo. I made the comparison, and couldn't see much difference in size between the full Harvest Moon at apogee versus the one last night at perigee, at least not in the photo. I noticed that myself when viewing it last night. Apparently the 14 percent apparent increase in diameter is not that noticeable , especially when not making a side by side comparison. But the illusion effect on the horizon must be noticeable, and tonight at moonrise will be the night of final judgement.

 

[pergradus]

I love the moon illusion. Maybe it's my imagination, but somehow the mind "magnifying" the moon let's me see more detail, despite there being no actual increase in resolution.

Overhead it can be difficult to clearly distinguish the different lunar mare, but near the horizon I can see them quite clearly. It's hard to compare it objectively though because photographs can't reproduce the illusion!

 

[DaveC426913]

Thanks for taking the time to take the photo. I made the comparison, and couldn't see much difference in size between the full Harvest Moon at apogee versus the one last night at perigee, at least not in the photo.

You really have to realize that your comparison in completely invalid.

To get two shots to compare, I would have to be standing in exactly the same place as I was six months ago. Closer or farther, and the foreground object you're using as a referent is a different size. I don't know if I was standing in the same spot (though I tried), so how could you?

Also, I would have to be using the exact same zoom setting. I don't know what the zoom setting is, how could you?

And finally, even if I were rigorous about ensuring all factors were identical, there's one factor I cannot keep consistent: this is March, that was June. The Moon is in a completely different position of the sky. In order to get my foreground referent and the Moon in alignment in March, like they were in June, I can't be standing in the same place.

 

[PhanthomJay]

You really have to realize that your comparison in completely invalid.

To get two shots to compare, I would have to be standing in exactly the same place as I was six months ago. Closer or farther, and the foreground object you're using as a referent is a different size. I don't know if I was standing in the same spot (though I tried), so how could you?

Also, I would have to be using the exact same zoom setting. I don't know what the zoom setting is, how could you?

And finally, even if I were rigorous about ensuring all factors were identical, there's one factor I cannot keep consistent: this is March, that was June. The Moon is in a completely different position of the sky. In order to get my foreground referent and the Moon in alignment in March, like they were in June, I can't be standing in the same place.

Well, when I asked you to take the picture with no tricks, I mean for you to stand in the same place and use the same camera settings. And the foreground wouldn't make any difference anyway, because all I have to do is print out a picture of both the Harvest Moon shot and the Wolf Moon shot, cut out the moon on one shot, and layer it over the moon in the other, and compare. It's the camera setting that's the most important.

When I viewed the moon tonight (with my son and grandaughter as witnesseses) rising over the ocean, at 20:35 EDST, it was a bright orange, and rather large. It rose in more or less the same spot, about 105 degrees E of N magnetic (90 degrees east of true north). By viewing it through a cardboard tube over one eye, and nothing over the other, I had the unnerving feeling of seeing 2 moons, one larger than the other, the larger of which i judged to be about 15% larger than the smaller , based on comparison photos I've seen of an apogee versus perigee moon. That made the moon appear about 33% larger than an overhead moon at apogee. And I still think I've seen larger appearing moons over the years, maybe based on foreground references, but that's a story for another time.

 

[Redbelly98]

Also, I would have to be using the exact same zoom setting. I don't know what the zoom setting is, how could you?

If you do the experiment again in the future, just remember to use the full zoom setting. Then you can measure the moon diameter in terms of image pixels, and compare its size in different photos.