PM Sat. August 29 - AM Sun. August 30, 2015 - Full "Super" Moon Notes

  Full Moon took place on Saturday afternoon at 2:35 PM EDT (18:35 UT August 29), so tonight and last night could really both be considered Full Moon nights; one night with it slightly prior to Full and then, tonight, slightly after Full. Both nights have been partly to mostly cloudy and hazy. This was the best photo I could take tonight around 11:00 PM, using my cell phone camera held up against one lens of my 7x50 binoculars, hand-held. The Moon was partly obscured by thin altocumulus clouds.

  Though it's next to impossible to tell this tonight, with the haze and clouds, the Moon is in Aquarius near and south of the "Water Jar" asterism.

  This Full Moon has also been referred to in the media as a "Super Moon." This is because Lunar Perigee takes place around 11:25 AM EDT Sunday (15:25 UT August 30), less than twenty four hours after the time it was Full. It looks slightly larger than the other Full Moons this year, in other words, though the media is exaggerating this as usual!

  As I was writing in my last entry, moonlight is going to be an issue through the upcoming week, as it wanes and gets closer to the winter constellations before dawn (where the variable stars lie that I want to start observing). Warmer, muggier air is also forecast to move in through the week along with chances for rain. This will be a good week to get my charts and notes ready, and hopefully by next weekend (which is also Labor Day Weekend) I'll start logging in some brightness estimates!