The European Southern Observatory has published a very spectacular image taken in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The photo shows the Super Moon setting behind Cerro Paranal Mountain. It is home to many telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope.
The image was taken by astrophotographer Yuri Beletsky on August 19, 2024. On that day, a sturgeon full moon coinciding with the Super Moon was observed on Earth.
The Moon moves around the Earth in an elliptical orbit, so the distance to it is constantly changing. A Super Moon is the moment when the Full Moon coincides with perigee. When this happens, the lunar disk looks about 7% larger than normal. However, the human eye is usually unable to notice such a difference.
In this image, the Moon seems so big that it covers entire buildings. But all this is a matter of angle and place of shooting. Photographs of the setting Super Moon were taken from a point located 13 km from Cerro Paranal Mountain. At this distance, the 28.5-meter domes of the Very Large Telescope seem very small, while the perceived size of the Moon doesn’t change. This gave the impression that the Moon was covering the buildings.
It is also worth noting that when the Moon is low above the horizon, it always appears several times larger than when it is high in the sky. However, in reality, its angular size is almost independent of its height. There are currently several different theories to explain this moon illusion, but scientists still can’t come to a consensus on which one is correct.
Earlier we told you about how an astronaut took a stunning photo of the Moon from aboard the ISS.
According to ESO
