Event: 09/08/2014 - 11/08/2014

Enjoy the magical light of the supermoon

The moon (Attribution: Pixabay - werner22brigitte)

Moon on a partly cloud night (Attribution: Pixabay - Maxline)

August 10 is the date of this years brightest supermoon. For those who don't know, a supermoon is where the moon is both full and at the closest point in its orbit. Supermoon time is a great opportunity for watching the moonrise and enjoying the magically bright light.The term supermoon sounds really cool, so astronomers prefer to use the term perigee full moon, with a perigee being the point in a orbit where a body approaches the closest. You see the moon doesn't orbit in a perfect circle but varies in distance from the earth.While the moon will be objectively bigger, the problem is that the apparent size of the moon is subjective. You will often notice that the moon looks bigger close to the horizon and smaller up above. This phenomena is not well understood but it can mean that supermoon watchers might find the moon doesn't appear bigger to their eye than normal.The real job of the supermoon is that it is much brighter than a normal moon. Having been out hiking at night with only the light of the supermoon, I can attest to this fact. So to enjoy the supermoon you need to get far from city lights.In Melbourne it rises at 5:14pm, be at its highest 12:10 am and set at 6:59 am the following morning. This is perfect timing to watch the moon.You will also get great bright nearly full moons for a few days around the same time, so if one day is cloudy you might get lucky on another night.The most common activity is to watch it rising over the water and Port Phillip provide plenty of great locations to do some moon watching. My thoughts is to head out to St Leonards, but will probably just go to Point Gellibrand for a short walk and make use of the many nearby cafes, bars and restaurants.Another great supermoon activity is hiking, but you want to find a place that is fairly open without covering trees. Even though the moon is very bright any shadows will be inky black.One of the most popular supermoon activities is photographing the moon, especially as it rises behind the city. The time of the moonrise and moonset in Melbourne is absolutely perfect for this, because the moon should be rising while the sky is still partially lit, which means you have both the moon and a partially lit landscape.To photograph the moon you will need a tripod and camera which has manual settings for both exposure and aperture. Most digital SLRs will do this, but many other digital cameras will allow you to do this as well. Every camera is a little different but as a general rule start with an f/8 aperture and a 30 second exposure, then play around with the settings until you get the perfect shot.