'Supermoon' May Outshine Meteor Shower This Weekend

[Hum]

The biggest full moon of the year, a so-called "supermoon," will take center stage when it rises this weekend, and may interfere with the peak of an annual meteor shower created by the leftovers from Halley's comet.

The supermoon of 2012 is the biggest full moon of the yearand will occur on Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 p.m. EDT (0335 May 6), though the moon may still appear full to skywatchers on the day before and after the actual event. At the same time, the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower will be hitting its peak, NASA scientists say.

"Its light will wash out the fainter Eta Aquarid meteors," NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke of the Marshall Space Flight Center told SPACE.com in an email. Still, Cooke said there's a chance that the brightest fireballs from the meteor display may still be visible.

A supermoon occurs when the moon hits its full phase at the same time it makes closest approach to Earth for the month, a lunar milestone known as perigee. Scientists also refer to the event as a "perigee moon," according to a NASA video on the 2012 supermoon.

That's exactly what will happen on Saturday, when the moon will swing within 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) of Earth ? its closest approach of the entire year. Because the moon's orbit is not exactly circular, there is a 3-percent variation in its closest approaches to Earth each month. The average Earth-moon distance is about 230,000 miles (384,400 km).

The eta Aquarid display is one of two meteor showers created by dust from Halley's comet.

Cooke anticipates that the 2012 Eta Aquarid meteor shower will peak at up to 60 meteors per hour on May 5.

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[AJerman]

Nice, I'll be at the beach for a wedding this weekend. I'll have to make sure I take my camera and gets some pics!

[neoadorable]

supermoon....that name always makes me chuckle!

[Hum]

A "supermoon" is seen behind the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, May 6, 2012

Would like to have a bigger photo of this ...

[Detection]

I noticed it looked bigger than usual tonight but nothing like the picture above, camera doesn't like how bright it is along with having to zoom pretty far in

[Hum]

^ You can usually adjust the light sensitivity on a digital camera.

My Nikon has a 'snow scene' setting.

[Detection]

^ You can usually adjust the light sensitivity on a digital camera.

My Nikon has a 'snow scene' setting.

Ah yea I have a snow setting on this I forgot about that, but I`m not taking another photo, it was awkward as anything, the moon is just over the rooftops out the back of the house and I had to balance the camera on top of the fridge opposite the back door and could barely see the LCD to focus it ! :D

EDIT - Ok so tried with Snow Setting but came out almost exactly the same, first shot was on Auto Scene so it probably picked something similar originally, its not a DSLR or even close :D