Bigger, brighter and closer than your average moon

THOUSANDS of Irish spectators were out on the streets to celebrate a rare sight at the weekend, but for once it had nothing to do with sporting achievement.

As large sections of the population basked in the glorious victory over England in the Six Nations match on Saturday, a similar number of sky-gazers were marvelling at an equally impressive event.

Known as a “super-moon”, on Saturday night the earth’s closest neighbour reached its nearest point to this planet for almost 20 years.

And while it may have been difficult to spot with the naked eye, astronomy enthusiasts insist the occasion — which made the moon appear bigger and brighter than normal — is a moment to remember.

The super-moon phenomena refers to a new or full moon that occurs when the celestial body is within 10% of its closest possible point to earth.

While the weekend event only resulted in a 0.3% increase in appearance for spectators keen to watch what was taking place, it was the first time the scenario had occurred since January 19, 1992.

On Saturday, the moon was just over 220,600 miles away from Dublin — a full 625 miles closer than it was a month before on February 18 and significantly nearer than at its furthest orbital point of 250,000 miles away.

As our pictures show, the naturally occurring phenomena resulted in picturesque images as sky-gazers took the opportunity to chronicle the event.

The occurrence has also led to conspiracy theory claims that the super-moon caused the recent natural disaster tsunami in Japan.

However, esteemed international expert Robert Massey, deputy executive secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society in Britain, said the suggestions were not based on any scientific facts.

“It is very irresponsible of people to suggest that there is a connection between the super moon and the tsunami in Japan. At the time of the earthquake, the Moon’s forces were at their weakest.

“Sadly life is not this simple. We shouldn’t say it is so easy to predict these things and it is not based on sensible science,” he said.