August 10, 2014 was the closest, brightest supermoon of this year. A Russian Astronaut, Oleg Artemyev from International Space Station took wonderful photos of this great astronomical event while the moon was setting.

What is a Supermoon?

A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the lunar disk as seen from Earth. The Moon’s distance varies each month between approximately 357,000 and 406,000 kilometers (222,000 and 252,000 miles) because of its elliptical orbit around the Earth (distances given are center-to-center).

The technical name is the perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. The term “supermoon” is not astronomical, but originated in modern astrology – it was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979.

According to NASA, a full moon at perigee is up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than one at its farthest point, or apogee.

To see all the photos visit Artemyev’s web page.

Oleg Artemyev

Oleg Germanovich Artemyev (born December 28, 1970) is a Russian Cosmonaut for the Russian Federal Space Agency. He is a member of the Expedition 39/Expedition 40 long-duration International Space Station crew. The mission launched on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on March 25, 2014. The mission is scheduled to last until September 2014.

Sources

• Oleg Artemyev on wikipedia
• Oleg Artemyev’s web page
• Supermoon on wikipedia