APOD: Strawberry Supermoon Over Devil's Saddle (2022 Jul 04)

[APOD Robot]

Strawberry Supermoon Over Devil's Saddle

Explanation: Near the horizon the full moon often seems to loom large, swollen in appearance by the famous Moon illusion. But time-lapse image sequences demonstrate that the Moon's angular size doesn't really change as it rises or sets. Its color does, though. Recording a frame about every 60 seconds, this image also shows how red the Sun can look while low on the horizon. The featured montage was taken from Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, the day after June's Strawberry Moon, a full moon dubbed a supermoon due to its slightly larger-than-usual angular size. This Strawberry Supermoon is seen rising behind the Devil's Saddle, a mountain named for the unusual moon-sized dip seen just to the right of the rising moon. A shrinking line-of-sight through planet Earth's dense and dusty atmosphere shifted the moonlight from strawberry red through honey-colored and paler yellowish hues. That change seems appropriate for a northern June Full Moon also known as the Strawberry or Honey Moon. A Thunder Supermoon -- the third of four supermoons in 2022 -- will occur later this month.

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[pelletierdonald806@gmail.com]

"this image also shows how red the Sun can look while low on the horizon". Is it the Moon or the Sun?

[pelletierdonald806@gmail.com]

and the explanation about the name of the mountain (in Italian : Sella del Diavolo) is not the good one. See Wikipedia italian : https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sella_del_Diavolo

[XgeoX]

This is definitely one of my all time favorite APOD titles!

[Chris Peterson]

and the explanation about the name of the mountain (in Italian : Sella del Diavolo) is not the good one. See Wikipedia italian : https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sella_del_Diavolo

I fail to see the problem. The Italian Wikipedia page says the same thing, that the structure is named for its resemblance to a saddle.

[orin stepanek]

At first I thought of Devil's Tower! Then I opened my eyes!

Nice red moon in Poland!

Ooh; what you said!

[MarkBour]

and the explanation about the name of the mountain (in Italian : Sella del Diavolo) is not the good one. See Wikipedia italian : https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sella_del_Diavolo

I fail to see the problem. The Italian Wikipedia page says the same thing, that the structure is named for its resemblance to a saddle.

The Italian Wikipedia page gave a nice legend explaining the name of the Devil's Saddle. A typically egocentric legend, I see. The APOD caption is not incorrect, it just ignores the legend and gives the fact that an astronomer might find interesting -- that the shape is about the same angular size as a full moon, given the right circumstances, such as in this image. But if you read the APOD caption one way, you might think it is saying that somehow the size of the dip explains its name, which is a bit of a confusion I think Donald was addressing.

And yes, it's a time lapse of the Moon, not the Sun, so again, a possible confusion there that could be cleared up.

I wonder how hard it would have been to take the image from a different vantage point and get the Moon actually rising right through the saddle? And I wonder if that would have made a better image or not.

The English Wikipedia page entry for Devil's Saddle
is not as useful! I guess that's the title of a movie
released about 95 years ago.

Looks like a real doozie.

[johnnydeep]

"this image also shows how red the Sun can look while low on the horizon". Is it the Moon or the Sun?

Yeah, that non-sequitur comparison made no sense to me either. Perhaps because it's the Sun's light that the moon is reflecting through the Earth's atmosphere, the implication can only be that the Sun itself would show the same reddening near the horizon?

[bill ritchie]

A lovely sequence. It is also a good example of refraction. The 'tangents' to the six images are in a noticeable curve, caused by the decreasing refractive 'uplift' as the elevation above the horizon increases.

[Chris Peterson]

and the explanation about the name of the mountain (in Italian : Sella del Diavolo) is not the good one. See Wikipedia italian : https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sella_del_Diavolo

I fail to see the problem. The Italian Wikipedia page says the same thing, that the structure is named for its resemblance to a saddle.

The Italian Wikipedia page gave a nice legend explaining the name of the Devil's Saddle. A typically egocentric legend, I see. The APOD caption is not incorrect, it just ignores the legend and gives the fact that an astronomer might find interesting -- that the shape is about the same angular size as a full moon, given the right circumstances, such as in this image. But if you read the APOD caption one way, you might think it is saying that somehow the size of the dip explains its name, which is a bit of a confusion I think Donald was addressing.

And yes, it's a time lapse of the Moon, not the Sun, so again, a possible confusion there that could be cleared up.

I wonder how hard it would have been to take the image from a different vantage point and get the Moon actually rising right through the saddle? And I wonder if that would have made a better image or not.

The_Devil's_Saddle_poster3.jpg

The English Wikipedia page entry for Devil's Saddle
is not as useful! I guess that's the title of a movie
released about 95 years ago.

Looks like a real doozie.

Well, there's no way to give either of those stories in the caption. Seems perfectly reasonable to me to refer to the moon-sized depression here. It's obvious why the name contains "saddle", after all!