posted by
martyb
on Monday February 18 2019, @02:17PM
from the do-"flat-Earthers"-believe-in-a-flat-moon? dept.
from the do-"flat-Earthers"-believe-in-a-flat-moon? dept.
"Skygazers will be treated to the 'super snow moon,' on Feb. 19, the largest supermoon of 2019.
February’s full moon is known as the “snow moon” as a result of the heavy snowfall that often occurs at that time of year...............
Supermoons occur when the Moon’s orbit brings it to the closest point to Earth while the Moon is full." foxnews.com/science/get-set-for-super-snow-moon-the-biggest-supermoon-of-the-year
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Get set for 'super snow moon,' the biggest supermoon of the year
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 26 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
(1)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @02:21PM (9 children)
I don't believe it!
(Score: 3, Informative) by martyb on Monday February 18 2019, @03:07PM (1 child)
It is much easier to complain or criticize than it is to offer constructive feedback.
I have offered several suggestions on how to improve, most recently this comment. [soylentnews.org]
This particular story was posted exactly as received, except for the removal of an emoticon as the first character of the subject line, because it messes with RSS feeds.
Since my direct feedback seems to have had limited to no effect, I thought I would try to elicit direct feedback from the community to see if that may be more effective.
Anyone can look at the story submission queue [soylentnews.org] and see what his other story submissions look like. Further, on any story accepted for publishing to the front page, we include a link to the Original Submission so the community can see exactly what, if anything, was changed.
Making better submissions greatly improves the chances of getting a story accepted.
I could make 100 submissions containing extracts of Lorem ipsum [wikipedia.org] and then complain that the site is ignoring my submissions! Unfair!!! =)
There is a link on the Story Submission [soylentnews.org] page to the Submission Guidelines [soylentnews.org], but it is possible it was not noticed, so I have explicitly provided a link to it, here.
Ultimately, it is about trying to get good quality stories out to the community to discuss, with an emphasis towards science- and technology-related topics.
So, I applaud these baby steps in the right direction and hope to see better story submissions come from it.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by captain normal on Monday February 18 2019, @07:09PM
Well, there are much more informed links to sites concerning so-called "super moons" than Faux News (the original "Fake news").
https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/super-full-moon.html [timeanddate.com]
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 4, Informative) by FatPhil on Monday February 18 2019, @03:07PM (2 children)
Here's what little science and nonscience there is to my understanding of the matter:
- There are ~12 super-ish moons each and every year - ones at perigee (closest aproach to earth in each orbit), they're basically as common as any other feature of the moon's orbit.
- Some of these super-ish moons are arbitrarily called "supermoons", some are not, as some perigees are a bit closer than other perigees
- Half of the super-ish moons are completely ignored because they're closer to new moons than full moons
- Because astrologers and pulp journalists think the moon can only cause earthquakes and extreme tides when the sun's photons are bouncing off it.
- there's no correlation between supermoons and earthquake activity or extreme tides
- professional astronomers get really annoyed by the public asking them about such nonscience.
This story is just our @jDT obsession with nonscience, and pulp journalistic bullshit. Nothing to see here, move along.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @08:26PM
That could be, there seems to be a very slight effect on pendulum due to that:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allais_effect [wikipedia.org]
Wouldn't be surprising if some kind of butterfly effect could get set off.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @08:40PM
Huh, here I thought that the whole "super moon" was just the biggest and brightest looking moon you can get, that is, that it is simultaneously at perigee and is full.
Pretty sure, people like them cause they look impressive.
Winter ones more so, as the snow reflects back and you get the brightest night you can get in many places (not where I live, where the brightest nights are the ones that are overcast and the clouds reflect all our light pollution back at us).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @03:36PM
Me thinks the rDT looked up in the sky yesterday and saw the moon for the first time, and was overly excited at discovering science.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday February 18 2019, @04:02PM (2 children)
Check out the submission page every few days, you will notice a disturbing amount of on topic science related submissions by TRDT.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @04:41PM
Part of the on going propaganda campaign. Solid move by the Russians.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @07:10PM
See above [soylentnews.org].
This very story is an example of the quality of what has been submitted.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Monday February 18 2019, @02:29PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Monday February 18 2019, @02:41PM (2 children)
Agreed. I'm still trying to figure when, why, and how this "supermoon" thing became a phenomenon that people cared about; they've literally been happening for centuries and it's only in the last couple of years (maybe not even that long) that they've gotten any media attention. Give what the link in TFS is, though, you know who I'm going to blame...
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday February 18 2019, @02:52PM
I have mixed feelings about it personally.
On the one hand, yes, it's not an "every day" occurrence, but "supermoons" happen quite frequently. As do lunar eclipses and most of the random astronomical phenomena mentioned by your daily newscaster. That's one of the reasons why astrology always seems to work "so well" -- there's always about ten different random astronomical events happening during a given week, so you can always come up with a way to justify whatever happens: "Oh, this wasn't because the conjunction of X and Y which predicted a good day, but note Jupiter is in the House of Aquarius now, so that explains why I didn't win the lottery!"
On the other hand, few people bother to look up at the stars these days. If some kid hears about a "supermoon" and takes ten minutes away from his phone to look out at the stars, and perhaps that makes him pick up a book on astronomy from the library next week, that's probably a good thing.
Keep in mind the media has basically been reporting on lunar eclipses as long as I can remember. Yet they're really common too, but they always get a mention. Is the "supermoon" any less trivial? I don't know. I do think the name "supermoon" is stupid, but that's about the only thing I have against reporting on them.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Monday February 18 2019, @02:57PM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 3, Funny) by PiMuNu on Monday February 18 2019, @02:32PM
> “snow moon” as a result of the heavy snowfall that often occurs at that time of year
Further evidence of global warming!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @02:58PM (2 children)
Why are there so many of these ``the moon is barely-perceptibly larger than othertimes'' stories? Because people can go out and look at it without equipment and imagine they can see it?
(Score: 2) by martyb on Monday February 18 2019, @03:31PM (1 child)
People have to get their start somewhere.
I remember looking up at the moon and admiring the different plains and crests. Then became interested in how the phase of the moon would change depending on its orbital position around the Earth. Later I learned that the moon does not orbit in a perfect circle and that there were these things called apogee and perigee (when the moon was at its furthest and nearest distances from the Earth). Oh, and the Earth has an apogee and perigee with respect to the Sun. It kept on from there. One thing led to learning about another, but it had to start somewhere!
As an aside, there is also the Moon illusion [wikipedia.org] where the Moon at sunset appears larger than when it is away from the horizon.
Combine a supermoon with the moon illusion (and a bit of curiosity) and someone might want to see what things look like when we have a "micromoon" (full moon when the Moon is at its apogee -- furthest distance from the Earth).
Oh, and though the apparent size is not that great, the apparent illumination is much greater [wikipedia.org] : only 14% bigger but 30% brighter!
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @06:59PM
For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion(operation of wandering)(planet) so that they will believe the lie.
Mystery Red of the Great American Eclipse [siderus.io]
It has blood on it! [siderus.io]
ABCNews: Eclipse makes pendulum wander [archive.org]
Losing my religion [siderus.io]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @03:08PM (2 children)
In many places of the world, heavy snowfall at the end of February would be something extremely unexpected.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @03:17PM (1 child)
Different places use different words, even within the same language.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Monday February 18 2019, @03:35PM
Agreed. I suspect there is not much snow in Sydney, Australia [weather.com] or even Miami, FL [weather.com] during this time of year. =)
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @05:37PM (3 children)
This anticlimatic supermoon bullshit gets more coverage than an eclipse FFS and has to stop! 99.99% of all people on earth give the moon at best a momentarily glance anytime it's up in the sky and are unable to tell the 10-20% size difference of a full moon at apogee or perigee, or in other words, slightly smaller full moon vs slightly larger full moon.
Let's use a large pizza analogy to help everyone understand: let's say an apogee full moon is a 17" pizza, an average full moon is a 18" pizza, and a perigee or supermoon is an 19" pizza. Without actually measuring or comparing your pizza to past pizzas, if you put either pizza (moon) on a large table (the sky) most people would not be able to tell if the pizza is 17", 18", or 19" in diameter.
Nobody used the word 'super-moon' until about a decade ago when some snowflakes on social medial thought the term would be "cute" or dramatic. Kind of like how the dramatic and scary phrase 'polar vortex' is used every-single-time to describe normal winter temperatures below 0F. If you are in Great Britain or along the Mediterranean, North Carolina then sure that would be hella-unusual winter temperatures and sure lets use a scary catch phrase, but for the upper 1/3 of continental US or most of Canada that is called normal winter weather.
Additionally, for all you that think a supermoon is an astronomical or scientific term it is not! The term was coined in the 1970's by astrologers, NOT astronomers. So much for science.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Monday February 18 2019, @07:28PM
" So much for science from rDT"
TFTFY
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday February 18 2019, @08:01PM
You missed by at least 25 years. The observant certainly can notice the apparent size and brightness difference. It's not really that amazing but it's noticeable. It's just a very minor curiosity really. Or as good of an excuse as any to look up or have a party (as if an excuse is needed).
If it makes a few kids a little more curious or causes a few minutes of quality time with a parent, it's worth a lot more than carping about it is.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Tuesday February 19 2019, @05:35AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iiajp9g3c8s&list=PL79ABCDE194850920&index=21 [youtube.com]
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Aurean on Monday February 18 2019, @08:44PM
That Snow Moon! (say it out aloud)