Skygazers around the world witnessed the biggest and brightest full moon in nearly 70 years on Sunday and Monday nights.
The phenomenon, in which a full moon appears at its closest point in its orbit around the Earth, known as perigee, is colloquially called a “supermoon.” Despite its name, a supermoon is only marginally more impressive than an average full moon.
Still, it attracted spectators to places as varied as the Acropolis in Athens, pictured above, to sand dunes in Mexico. Below, a photographer captured the gleaming orb as it rose behind the Castle of Almódovar in Córdoba, southern Spain, on Sunday.
This week’s supermoon was the closest the full moon has appeared since 1948, and the nearest it will be until 2034.
Compared with a regular full moon, this supermoon was about 7 percent larger and 15 percent brighter.
In Bald Hill, south of Sydney, Australia, a crowd watched as the moon peeked through the clouds.
In Mexico, some flocked to the sand dunes of Samalayuca on the outskirts of Ciudad Juárez to watch.
Kuwaitis pulled out chairs to see the show near Kuwait City.
This final image shows the moment an American Airlines passenger plane passed overhead in Whittier, Calif.
(via NY Times)
