Posts tagged supermoon
A Squashed Space Station Supermoon
On Monday, Discovery News asked for our readers’ photographs of the weekend’s “supermoon.” Unfortunately, we totally overlooked a photographer who was orbiting 250 miles over our heads who had a front row seat for the bright lunar event. European astronaut André Kuipers watched the perigee moon set over the Earth’s atmosphere on May 5 from the International Space Station, but it looked remarkably different from how the supermoon looked for most of us on the ground.
As seen from Kuipers’ vantage point, the reflected light from the bottom of the lunar disk had to travel through more atmospheric gases than light from the top of the disk. The light from the bottom of the lunar disk was therefore strongly refracted, causing the light to bend upward, giving the moon a squashed appearance (above). An earlier photograph by Kuipers (below) shows the supermoon in all its glory, completely free from any atmospheric distortions — but the “squashed supermoon” is beautiful in its own right.
Our Tumblr and Twitter follower photos here
2012 Supermoon Images from Our Tumblr and Twitter Followers
There were so many great images from Saturday’s ‘supermoon,’ we decided to compile them together.
We have images from Australia, El Salvador, Malta and Reno here.
Supermoon from Idaho
from twitchyspastic
Supermoon from Pocatello Idaho
from twitchyspastic
Supermoon in Sydney, Australia.
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I took this picture (among about a half dozen) of the Super Moon, as seen from my apartment in Rensselaer (Albany), NY, around 11:30 Eastern.
from ernestsewell
Clinton Township Michigan by Cate Harder
from cosmicrainbowfish
Here is a little 2 second time-lapse I made of the Super Moon rising above the horizon. It’s comprised of 71 images taken in 10 second intervals. Nothing special, but it was my first attempt at a mini-time-lapse. :)
Taken from Electronic Arts HQ in Redwood City, CA.
from trevholland
