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Birthday · December 3, 2017

Full Moon Silhouettes

December 3, 2017

Consider this: the iron in your blood was forged in a supernova explosion billions of years ago.

Full Moon Silhouettes

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APOD published December 3, 2017 · Video still. Credit: Mark Gee; Music: Tenderness (Dan Phillipson). A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.

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Full Moon Silhouettes

Original APOD · December 3, 2017

Have you ever watched the Moon rise? The slow rise of a nearly full moon over a clear horizon can be an impressive sight. One impressive moonrise was imaged in early 2013 over Mount Victoria Lookout in Wellington, New Zealand. With detailed planning, an industrious astrophotographer placed a camera about two kilometers away and pointed it across the lookout to where the Moon would surely soon be making its nightly debut. The featured single shot sequence is unedited and shown in real time -- it is not a time lapse. People on Mount Victoria Lookout can be seen in silhouette themselves admiring the dawn of Earth's largest satellite. Seeing a moonrise yourself is not difficult: it happens every day, although only half the time at night. Each day the Moon rises about fifty minutes later than the previous day, with a full moon always rising at sunset. A good time to see a full moonrise will occur tonight at sunset as the Moon's relative closeness to Earth during a full phase -- called a supermoon -- will cause it to appear slightly larger and brighter than usual. Free Download: The 2018 APOD Calendar

Image credit: Mark Gee; Music: Tenderness (Dan Phillipson)

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