Supermoon was a term that turned up in various social media news items in the recent past. While obviously sparking an interest among the general public, it drew some criticism from prominent figures in astronomy like Neil deGrass Tyson ( http://time.com/5046984/neil-degrasse-tyson-goes-on-epic-rant-about-tonights-supermoon-calls-it-an-embarrassment/ ) on how the term is a major exaggeration of reality. What does supermoon mean? The term supermoon has turned out to mean that Moon appears bigger than usual. This happens because the orbit of the Moon around the Earth is not a circle, it is infact an ellipse. At its closest point to Earth, the Moon is about 360,000km away where as at its furthest, it is about 405,000km away. For comparison, the Earth it self is about 12,600km across (diameter). It looks like the Moon swings at least four Earths towards and away, and that is clearly a big swing. So why do the astronomers claim that it is not a big deal? While the difference in the...
An amateur's attempts at astrophotography.