Supermoon! As viewed from our house.

Video of the Supermoon, captured by us!

Yesterday, 14th November 2016, was a very significant day.  The Moon appeared bigger and very bright. This is because the Moon came closest to us. The last time such an event, a Supermoon occurred was on 26th January 1948 and the next time would be after a very long time, on 25th November 2034.

We anxiously waited for nightfall and Moonrise. We were ready with our Telescope, Binoculars, Camcorder and Cameras to view and capture memories of the brightest Moon, perhaps the only one of my lifetime. The Moon’s size seemed to be slightly bigger but its brightness was most certainly phenomenal. Moonlight was all over the sky and land. Not a single Star could be seen as Moonlight camouflaged them. Normally with our Telescope, we can see the craters on the Moon very clearly but yesterday because of the bright light on the Moon this was not possible, they just appeared vague and shaded.

The reason the Moon appears to shrink and grow in the sky is that its orbit is not a perfect circle, but rather, a modest ellipse. As the Moon swings between its closest point and its furthest point, its distance to Earth varies by approximately 30,000 miles that is 48,000 kilometres. Full Moons and New Moons occur when the Earth, Sun and Moon all form a line. A supermoon is one such alignment when the Moon is at the closest possible to Earth and this is a rare occurrence as I mentioned above.

I and my family are glad we could witness this rare event and are thrilled as we could see the Moon a little more closely than is normally possible. Hope you too were able to see the Supermoon.

You may see the above video and the attached photographs of the Supermoon captured by us.