Saturday, March 19, 2011 boasted the largest moon in over 20 years. The evening marked the moon’s closest position to the earth, a phenomenon that will not occur for another two decades.
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| Photo Credit: Sumit Kumar, Glasgow |
Although some were entirely unaware of the infrequent event, a large amount people across the globe went to fields and clearings to witness the “super moon.”
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| Claire Massingham, Northolt Hills |
In the spirit of our digital culture, many skywatchers were alerted of the phenomenon through Twitter, Facebook and other social media websites. In fact, Twitter was overwhelmed with tweets about the exceptionally large moon that was filing the night sky, and #supermoon earned a spot as the top trend for the evening.
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| Martin Thorne, Canary Islands |
Twitter was flooded with photos of the super moon that had been shot using stargazer’s cell phones, and multiple large news outlets opened their websites for user submissions.
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| Brian Dempsey, Mudford Cay |
Although some photography experts scoff at the pixelated quality of the amateur’s images, I think that the amateur photographer’s work should be appreciated. Not only does it allow us to see the phenomenal super moon from countless different perspectives across the world, but it also is unifying in a way. Instead of professional photographers publishing their perfected photographs, we see the moon as it was viewed by the thousands of astronomy enthusiasts who took to the skies armed with their iPhones and a Twitter account, ready to share the beauty of the super moon with the world.
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| Ali Napier for BBC |
Nice thinking on the work of amateurs! Or should I say, "SUPER!"