Brightest full moon for the year will be rising tonight, apparently. (Dates below are US):

“Super Moon” On May 5-6

May 2, 2012: The full Moon has a reputation for trouble. It raises high tides, it makes dogs howl, it wakes you up in the middle of the night with beams of moonlight stealing through drapes. If a moonbeam wakes you up on the night of May 5th, 2012, you might want to get out of bed and take a look. This May’s full Moon is a “super Moon,” as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full Moons of 2012.

The scientific term for the phenomenon is “perigee moon.” Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon’s orbit. The Moon follows an elliptical path around Earth with one side (“perigee”) about 50,000 km closer than the other (“apogee”). Full Moons that occur on the perigee side of the Moon’s orbit seem extra big and bright.

Such is the case on May 5th at 11:34 pm Eastern Daylight Time1 when the Moon reaches perigee. Only one minute later, the Moon will line up with Earth and the sun to become brilliantly full. The timing is almost perfect.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/02may_supermoon/

That was last night and the data was good. It was very bright indeed.

roughbarked said:

That was last night and the data was good. It was very bright indeed.

Last night was 99%. Tonight is 100% iluminated.

ooo, does that mean that tomorrow night it will be 101%?

sibeen said:

ooo, does that mean that tomorrow night it will be 101%?

I’m sure:)

jjjust moi said:

sibeen said:

ooo, does that mean that tomorrow night it will be 101%?

I’m sure:)

;)

it will be less 1%..

my original comment was about the date of May 5 noted in the text Bubbles posted.

>my original comment was about the date of May 5 noted in the text Bubbles posted.

That’s the US date. Bear in mind that in New York the current time is Saturday May 5, 10.34 PM. So it hasn’t reached its brightest yet.

I’m keeping an eye on it…it’s a bit out of sight for me…trees etc. Also we have some haze…strange but true.

Last night, it was indeed quite bright.

(Hey, I’m a poet!)

Divine Angel said:

Last night, it was indeed quite bright.

(Hey, I’m a poet!)

Here, tonight, it was shining under a light.

No sign of it yet. Pretty cloudy in the east, but I’ll take some snaps regardless. Here’s one from a few months ago:

It’s up and it’s big and it’s yellowish.

I can see the glow where it’s rising, but no sign of the sphere itself at this stage.

I can sort of see it from the window… at the moment it’s behind a tree.

Bah, looks like it’s going to be heavily clouded out for some time, this end.

>>Bah, looks like it’s going to be heavily clouded out for some time, this end.

Ditto at Black Rock Bubbles.

MOOON!!</size>

I shall try out my new camera and take some pics when I get home.

looks normal to me.

Skeptic Pete said:

looks normal to me.

Truly a skeptic to the end.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Skeptic Pete said:

looks normal to me.

Truly a skeptic to the end.

When’s the end?

If only the supermoon coincided with the end of the Mayan calendar…

Skeptic Pete said:

When’s the end?

Just before Christmas, or so I’ve been told.

Looks like it’s going to be a good one, when/if I finally get to see it:

Some nice painterly cloud effects but still no moon as such:

looks cloudy outside here :( but will take the camera out anyway…

I did a couple of shots last night to compare.

Your pics are very Alfred Hitchcock in mood.

Divine Angel said:

If only the supermoon coincided with the end of the Mayan calendar…

i’d completely forgotten about the apocalypse

wookiemeister said:

Divine Angel said:

If only the supermoon coincided with the end of the Mayan calendar…

i’d completely forgotten about the apocalypse

You know Dick Clarke died… in the year we weren’t supposed to have a new year count down…

those trickster myans…

Arts said:

wookiemeister said:

Divine Angel said:

If only the supermoon coincided with the end of the Mayan calendar…

i’d completely forgotten about the apocalypse

You know Dick Clarke died… in the year we weren’t supposed to have a new year count down…

those trickster myans…

if a had dollar for every apocalypse….

Did I miss the apocalypse? Whenabouts is it supposed to be?

buffy said:

Did I miss the apocalypse? Whenabouts is it supposed to be?

Dec 21, unless Harold Camper puts up more billboards.

Did I miss the apocalypse? Whenabouts is it supposed to be?
-

21 December 2012.

you have plenty of time Buffy…

i suppose was the mayans Y2K

the stone counters would run out of stone and then where would they be

nowhere apparently – they didn’t outlast their calendar

>>>21 December 2012.

Better call for last round of drinks?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pte2XO66Nwg/TS06ZHaCVkI/AAAAAAAAHbs/rU8od1fWyfI/s1600/mayan-calendar.jpg

Almost peeping through:

i’m not sure if a group of people who would offer bloody sacrifices would offer too much insight into the end of the world

think about it

you can squash the conspiracists by reason alone

exactly why would a barbaric society have any insight into anything?

i did enjoy the film though

wookiemeister said:

i’m not sure if a group of people who would offer bloody sacrifices would offer too much insight into the end of the world

You’re confusing Aztecs with Mayans.

The site of collection was of obvious ritual significance. Joralemon notes it is “virtually certain” that blood from the penis and the vagina were the most sacred and had “extraordinary fertilizing power” and that such rituals were essential for the regeneration of the natural world, particularly cultivated plants. In one dramatic variant men and women “gathered in the temple in a line, and each made a pierced hole though the member, across from side to side, and then passed through as great a quantity of cord as they could stand; and thus all together fastened and strung together, they anointed the statue of the demon with the collected blood.” But auto-sacrifice could also be an everyday event, with those passing by an idol anointing it with blood drawn on the spot as a sign of piety.

no mayans

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrifice_in_Maya_culture

Most of the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica such as the Olmec, Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec and Aztec cultures practised some kind of taking of human trophies during warfare. Captives taken during war would often be taken to their captors’ city-states where they would be ritually tortured and sacrificed. These practices are documented by a rich material of iconographic and archaeological evidence from across Mesoamerica.

look, I’m not one to complain about the weather.. but dammit if fricken perthect hasn’t pulled a bugger you guys on us and started to rain on this the night of the supermoon…

S’OK. You’ll miss the bad moon on the rise.

maybe this is why we wont win the SKA