On Saturday afternoon of March 19, 2011 at 3pm EST, the moon was at its closest point to the Earth – a distance of 221,565 miles (356,575 kilometers) away. This phenomenon is known as SuperMoon, which was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979 and is defined as:
…a new or full moon which occurs with the Moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee). In short, Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth.
What does this mean for us? Well at the moon’s peak, the supermoon appears 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than lesser full moons (when the moon is at its farthest from Earth).
This is quite a spectacular event (and rare!) as the moon has not been in a position to appear this large since March 1993. In December 2008, there was a near-supermoon when the moon turned full four hours away from its perigee (the point in its orbit that is closest to Earth). But this month, the full moon and perigee are just under one hour apart, promising much better views.
Unfortunately, I fell sick on this day and I woke up at 9pm, saddened that I had missed the moon at its peak! But I managed to catch some pretty cool views of the moon regardless. We went out on my condo swimming pool balcony and took a few snaps.