Supermoon Over Miami
MIAMI (CBS4) - If you've ever wanted to see a Superman-powered moon, Saturday was your opportunity.
Saturday night around 7 p.m. the moon was in a phase called, "supermoon."
A supermoon is a full moon that happens to coincide with a close approach of the moon to the earth. Saturday's full moon will be the closest the moon has been to the Earth in 18 years, according to spaceweather.com.
Stargazers in South Florida gathered in Palmetto Bay to watch the Supermoon. Some people thought the event was so big, they needed to capture it on camera.
"This is for my son. When he grows up, I can say hey, look at this," said one amateur photographer.
"You don't normally get to see it that often. It's big," said one child named Ryan.
- (Source: Dave Game/CBSMIami.com) - Surfboards provide an impromptu viewing platform in the Florida Keys as the 2011 Supermoon rises over Key Largo
In the Florida Keys, people came to the beach to look at the moon rise. In one neighborhood near Rock Harbor, residents paddled out on surfboards to get a good look.
"Oooh, look at the size of it," said one person standing on a board, gazing skyward.
The recent devastating earthquake and tsunami generated a buzz online that the supermoon played a role in the disaster. The genesis of the idea came from an astrologer who contended that the supermoon would touch off natural disasters such as the earthquake.
Astronomers and other scientists dismissed the notion and NASA scientists said that while the moon may seem bigger to people on Earth, the difference in distance from Earth is only a few percent.
The full moon will bring the moon about 221,567 miles away from Earth. Typically, the average distance between the Earth and the moon is roughly 238,000 miles.
NASA said that the effects on Earth of the supermoon are minor and that the phenomenon will not affect the "internal energy balance of the Earth since there are lunar tides every day."
