The strawberry supermoon rises behind the Artemis 1 moon rocket on June 14, 2022. About a decade ago, a friend of mine told me that she was expecting a much-ballyhooed supermoon to appear 'radically brighter.' Because of that oft-quoted 30% brighter value, she was expecting to see something akin to a 3-way light bulb as if on supermoon night it was going to be like turning the moon's brightness up a notch.īut so far as full moons are concerned, an increase of 0.28-magnitude is hardly perceptible to the eye, if at all. How bright are supermoons?įor instance, a boost of 30% in the moon's illuminance (opens in new tab) (a measure of the amount of light per unit of area) amounts to an increase in brightness of only 0.28-magnitude. The sensationalism attached to such claims usually results in considerable disappointment among the masses who are looking up and hoping to see something unusual in the sky. Such distant full moons are also colloquially referred to as 'micromoons' or 'minimoons.' However, the truth of the matter is that supermoons appear 14% larger and 30% brighter not as compared to full moons at their average distance from Earth, but rather, as compared to full moons near their farthest distance from Earth (apogee). The two things that are always disclosed is that this particular full moon 'will appear 14% larger and 30% brighter than normal.' What is always rather amazing to me is the way people get whipped into a frenzy when they hear about the announcement of an impending supermoon. Well they don't, and with good reason: Because there is no proof for any such connections. But if there was even a small correlation, wouldn't seismologists who have spent their careers studying the cause and effect of earthquakes be issuing advisories every time a full moon aligned with perigee, when a total lunar eclipse was due, or when the moon rides high above equator? (Image credit: Getty)Įven The Old Farmer's Almanac (opens in new tab) suggests every year that earthquakes can be anticipated based on how far north or south the moon appears relative to the celestial equator (when it 'rides high' or 'rides low'). Questions were quickly raised as to whether the eclipse may have been the catalyst for the California quake.Ī supermoon eclipse captured in Wildwood, Florida. 9, 1971, the San Fernando Earthquake (magnitude 6.6) rocked parts of Southern California later that night the full moon underwent a total eclipse.

And yet, a connection between earthquakes and the moon has been kicked around for a very long time.

Of course, the very idea that the closeness of a full moon could have triggered the Japan earthquake in 2011 is absurd (in fact, on the day of the quake, the moon was actually nearer to its apogee point - that part of its orbit farthest from Earth). Related: NASA Scientist explains science behind 'supermoon' phenomenon One of the first to make this claim was Nolle himself, who claimed that supermoons can cause 'geophysical stress.'Īnd suddenly, the term 'supermoon' gained traction among the mainstream media. Eight days later, a full moon coincided with perigee and immediately suggestions were made that this could have served as the trigger for the massive Japanese quake. Interestingly, while this term made little impact in 1979, it suddenly got a lot of attention on March 11, 2011, when the magnitude 9.1 Tohoku Earthquake earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Honshu on the Japan Trench. He first used it in a 1979 edition of Dell Horoscope, a now-defunct periodic American magazine covering modern astrology, once calling itself 'the world's leading astrology magazine.' For his supermoon designation, Nolle wrote that 'a full moon which occurs with the moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee)' would get the 'super' branding.Īnd that is the reason - based solely on Nolle's definition - why Wednesday's full moon will be labeled as 'super.' We can thank astrologer Richard Nolle for the supermoon terminology. So, just where did it come from, and how did it become so popular? Unrealistic claims

July full moom