There was a lot of hype this week over the supermoon of 2012. Facebook and Twitter were flooded with posts and pictures. Why do people make such a fuss over a full moon? I will show you why! Here are a few of my favorite pictures.
Pisa, Italy
Florida
Unknown
If you know who took the above “unknown” picture please let us know so we can give them credit for it.
The above pictures are just a few of the hundreds I viewed over the past 2 days. They stood out to me as the most beautiful.
What is a supermoon? What makes it so super? The term supermoon was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979. It occurs when a full moon is closest to Earth(within 90% of) in orbit. The term for this is perigee. The Associated Press reported the Moon was at its closest, 221,802 miles, at 11:34 EDT.
I got a good shot at the supermoon last night.
Georgia
My friends from the U.K. were not so lucky. They had a lot of clouds that prevented them from seeing the supermoon and the meteor shower.
There are an average of 4-6 supermoons a year. Not all of them are as bright as this year’s supermoon. The supermoon of 2013 will not be so bright. The Moon is not expected to come as close as it did this year. However, August 10, 2014 promises to be a show!
Just as a full moon has an effect on the tides, a supermoon will have an even greater effect. Tides will be high over the next few days. Some conspiracy theorists believe supermoons have an effect on Earth’s weather. A great example is the earthquake in Japan in 2011. It occurred around the supermoon of 2011. Is this just a coincidence? I will leave that for you to decide. Here is a list of natural disasters that occurred around a supermoon: 2011 earthquake of Christchurch New Zealand, Hurricane Katrina, 2004 tsunami of Indonesia, and the devastating earthquate of 2010 in Haiti.
I am undecided as to whether or not the supermoon has a hand in these natural disasters. So far the supermoon of 2012 has not been blamed for any disasters. Let us hope it stays that way!
I am excited to join IN THE KNOW! Hope you come back to read more science news in the future.
Sandra 
csimp
Karen Ford
IN THE KNOW 
May 6th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
Awesome first post Sandra. And I love the pictures.
May 6th, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Thank you Karen and thank you for giving me a place to write xox
May 6th, 2012 at 11:44 pm
Hmmm.. Quick question. Do you know of people having behavior-related stuff prior to the Supermoon? Patrick was just miserable on Sunday, cranky, lots of OCD related behavior with his autism that I haven’t seen in awhile, and Monday, & Tuesday were not good either. He seems to be getting back to his normal behavior now, but it’s perplexed me and now I’m wondering if there might be a relation. I know when mercury is in retrograde, it can lead to all sorts of communication problems between people, but I don’t know much about how the moon can effect behavior. Thanks for the help.
May 7th, 2012 at 8:14 am
Hilda, I searched the internet and found some people in favor of full moon effecting behavior and some not. My personal opinion is yes it does. To me, Patrick would be more sensitive that someone who had a lot of external stimuli. It’s a very interesting question and I will continue to read up on it. Thanks!
May 10th, 2012 at 2:51 am
Thank you for researching that. He seems to be better this week, crabby for 1-1/2 hours when he gets home but then he mellows out. Is only getting out of bed 2 times before I warn him that if he gets out again, I would shut the door (which he hates), and he seems to understand. But yesterday after school he got really OCD with some people who came in from the agency supposedly getting us some help. It’s always a puzzle and I thank you very much for doing some research on it. It probably wouldn’t make much sense to me if I tried.
May 10th, 2012 at 8:32 am
You are welcome Hilda. Glad Patrick has settled down 🙂
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