Is The Super Moon A Mistake & How Does It Tie Into Social Media?

I thought I would tackle a new approach for this week’s blog and focus on something different. Since the super moon is the latest talk and I honestly don’t know much about it, I decided to dig into this topic. I intent to highlight information by providing a few question which my youngest daughter asked me when I mentioned this subject to her.

Which brings me to the question of exactly what is a super moon? A super moon occurs when the full moon coincides with the moon’s closest approach to Earth. Super moons are so special because they are rare and only occur a few times a year. You might have noticed the recent super moon we experienced when you looked into the sky this week and noticed that the moon looked a lot bigger than normal. I thought it was amazing and beautiful!

So exactly what happens? Because of other gravitational forces in our solar system the moon travels in an ellipse around Earth and comes much more closer during one half of the orbit than the other. When of it the full moon occurs during this time it will look up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the average full moon. Monday was the highlight since 1948 when the full moon was almost exactly on point with the moon’s perigee, which is the point where it is at it absolute closest to Earth. What is even more fascinating is that this will not happen again until November 2034. This phenomenon is so rare because the position of the relation to Earth and the position of Earth to the sun need to line up exactly and the moon is dependent on this.

Can anything else happen during the super moon? A super moon can bring on high tides and flooding because of climate change which can impact the sea levels. Currently 130 million residents could be effected by costal countries from Florida to New England as high tides are being linked to the full moon since the weekend which has caused some minor flooding.

Do they have special names? Here is a small list of just some of the names according to the season

Full moon names by season (Northern or Southern Hemisphere):

After the winter solstice: Old Moon, or Moon After, Yule Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, or Wolf Moon, Sap Moon, Crow Moon or Lenten Moon

After the spring equinox: Grass Moon, or Egg Moon Planting Moon, or Milk Moon, Rose Moon, Flower Moon, or Strawberry Moon

After the summer solstice: Thunder Moon, or Hay Moon Green Corn Moon, or Grain Moon Fruit Moon, or Harvest Moon

After the autumnal equinox: Harvest Moon, or Hunter’s Moon, Hunter’s Moon, Frosty Moon, or Beaver Moon, Moon Before Yule, or Long Night Moon

Something interesting I came across in Mad Magazine focused on 6 illuminating facts about the super moon.

• This is the closest the moon will be to Earth until 2034 – if the Earth still exist in 2034
• It’s led to a 244% increase in people walking outside, looking up , shrugging , and walking back inside
• It’s currently being sued by DC comics which owns the legal trademark to “Super Moon’
• Many ancient cultures believed a super moon predicted a bountiful fall harvest or the total annihilation of the human race
• It can create a tidal effect in your toilet bow that brings the water clear up your taint.

So how does social media connect to the super moon? Well judging from the photos surfing around on different Social Medias like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook there is much talk about the super moon, because of the photos taken from people across the board. Social media has gone bananas from the hash tags I’ve come across like #supermoon2016 as each photo captured the moon it different points of its brightest moments. I even came across tips on how to take the bet super moon photos taken from smartphones or ever professional cameras. I also came across a page on a friend’s Facebook page where she used a collage app to compare a photo she took with a photo taken by another person.