Supermoon May 6, 2012

The full moon last night was gorgeous!

It required patience for me to even see the moon through all the clouds here in the Poconos of northeast Pennsylvania, but the wait was more than worth it! These two images were captured at 2:44am and 2:46am respectively. I was hoping and waiting all night for the moon to break through the clouds and I had almost given up completely. I was actually upstairs just about getting ready for bed when I thought, “Let me open the blinds and take another peek out the window.” Sure enough, I saw a break in the clouds. So I moved quickly downstairs, grabbed my tripod with camera already attached, and headed out the door. I had about 20 minutes to shoot before the cloud cover reappeared.

A supermoon is becoming a popular term now that describes the situation when the moon is closest to the earth in its oval orbit. Last night the moon was 221,802 miles from the earth and appeared brighter and bigger due to this closer proximity. According to LiveScience.com it was 14 percent bigger and 16 percent brighter than a typical full moon.

Which of these two photos do you think is better? There is a slight change in camera settings in my attempt to try to show as many moon features as possible. The first photo is brighter and helps depict the bright site in the sky last night, while the second photo is slightly darker to show more of the details on the moon’s surface.

And, yes, I will confess; this full moon made me feel like howling!