June 23, 2013

Blackheath “SuperMoon” Event

The Perigee Moon over Blackheath

Report by Mike Meynell

It does seem rather unusual to be writing a report about a Flamsteed event that was officially cancelled! For this event, we were due to be joined by the BBC Sky at Night team, who were keen to launch their “Moore Moon Marathon” season at a Flamsteed Blackheath session. Sadly, the weather conditions for the whole weekend of 22/23 June were abysmal, and, after much discussion, we decided to abandon the event, as the possibility of rain, along with cloud cover, meant that we could not risk taking telescopes out on to the heath.

However, I decided to pop along to Blackheath at Moonrise to see if it would be possible to get some pictures of the Perigee Full Moon (or “SuperMoon”) on Sunday 23 June. The Moon was due to rise at 9.08pm, so I turned up just before 9pm with camera equipment, more in hope than expectation. It was raining heavily when I arrived, but it was possible to see some brighter skies in the north, which is where the weather was moving from, so I decided to wait it out.

Very suddenly, the rain stopped, and a stunning rainbow appeared, stretching from due south to due east, giving the appearance that the end of the rainbow was somewhere near the top of Shooter’s Hill Road… who knew?!? The clouds slowly started to part, and I was then joined by Rupert who had glanced out of his window and noted the clearing skies before jumping into his car to come to Blackheath. Though there were now clear skies to the north and west, the cloud cover remained stubbornly in place over the south-east horizon, which was where the Moon was starting to rise. Very annoying. Several passers-by stopped for a chat, as we must have made for a rather unusual sight… camera equipment set up and pointing at a cloudy sky! Once we explained what was happening, a few waited to see if the clouds would eventually part.

At just after 10pm, the clouds finally parted in the south-east. By this stage the Moon was pretty high in the sky, so it wasn’t possible to see the optical illusion that makes the Moon look so much bigger when it is low on the horizon. However, I managed to get a few nice pictures… particularly one of the Moon just above All Saints Church on Blackheath, which I thought came out well (it was even picked up by Yahoo News!).

Flamsteed member, Nick Phillips, had better luck. On a break in the South of France, Nick found a restaurant on a beach front on Sunday evening to watch the Moonrise. Nick reports that the Moon rose with a red/orange glow and looked, in his words, “massive”. He managed to take a couple of pictures using a small hand-held camera which, considering the lack of tripod, came out really well. See here and here.

So at least some of us saw the “SuperMoon”! A shame that we had to cancel the Blackheath event, particularly as it would have been great to have the BBC Sky at Night at a Flamsteed event again. However, they promise to be back for our attempt to see the penumbral lunar eclipse from Blackheath on Friday 18 October. We will send out further details of this nearer the date of the event.

UPDATE: Flamsteed member, Stuart Goodwin, has been in contact to say that he flew over to Spain to see the “SuperMoon”. Judging from his pictures, it was well worth the trip. They can be seen here, here and here.