perigee-syzygy

I am trying to refain from using the term "Supermoon", as it seems to inspire some strange questions from those whom think my interest in Selenology is being a member of the Celine Dion fan club.
No it won't start earthquakes.
No it wont cause a Tsunami.
No the world will not end..............

Therefore you can see my reluctance in using the phrase. The term "Supermoon" was first coined by an astrologer Richard Nolle way back in 1979 He claimed that this proximity of the Moon and the Earth has the tendency to trigger a series of natural disasters on the planet. In order to support his claim, he put forth a list of natural disasters in the past which he alleges happened as a result of this phenomenon. I say "WHAT A LOAD OF TOSH" So as you can see it is what you would expect from an astrologer. (pretend science) sniggering as I type.

Science fact.

Everybody knows that the Moon orbits around the Earth, but only a few people are aware of the fact that its orbit is not round, but is elliptical in shape. As a result of this shape, the distance between the Earth and moon varies from time to time. When the Moon is at its farthest point from the Earth, it is referred to as 'lunar apogee', and when it is at its closest it is referred to as 'lunar perigee'. In other words, the distance between the Earth and the Moon fluctuates between 221,000 to 252,000 miles - and lunar perigee occurs when this distance is somewhere around 221,000 miles.

My Image was taken last night between 21.39 & 21.42 at a mean distance of 222,483 miles.

Using my William Optics GT81 and my trusty Canon 40D I captured segments of the moon in series of AVI files. Processed in Registax 6 with a wavelet sharpening. Stitched together in Photoshop with a small contrast enhancement.

The opinions expressed about Astrology in this post are entirely my own.