Supermoon eclipse over Wigton

 I hadn't heard of the term "supermoon" until last night. As with any astronomical object, the orbit of the Moon is not a perfect circle. It is more of an oval - an ellipse. That means that at some times in the month, the Moon is nearer the Earth than at others. When this coincides with the full moon, they call it a "supermoon". We were warned that at 14% bigger/brighter, we'd struggle to tell the difference. And in truth, I'd agree. There is that optical illusion thing where a full moon looks huge if it is near the horizon and you have earthly objects against which to compare it.

Here is the first part of the eclipse. The camera is set the same so you can see how much it has diminished. I was unable to get a picture at all during the fainter red light near totality. For those  who don't know - this is when the Moon edges into the shadow of the Earth so is able to reflect far less light than normal.