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A Cape Cod Notebook can be heard every Tuesday morning at 8:45am and afternoon at 5:45pm.It's commentary on the unique people, wildlife, and environment of our coastal region.A Cape Cod Notebook commentators include:Robert Finch, a nature writer living in Wellfleet who created, 'A Cape Cod Notebook.' It won the 2006 New England Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Radio Writing.

Reflections on a Supermoon

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There are actual, physical natural events, and then there are what I call “conceptual natural events,” and sometimes it’s difficult to tell the difference. The event I’m thinking about was the so-called “supermoon” – the full moon that occurred at the lunar perigee – that is, the position in its orbit when the moon passes closest to earth.

Not only was it a perigee full moon, it was, according to NASA, the closest the full moon had passed to earth in 18 years.

  **This week's Cape Cod Notebook is a rebroadcast.  It originally aired in March of 2011.**

Word had apparently gotten around, for on that Saturday night, at 7:15, there were dozens of cars parked at Nauset Light, Fort Hill, and various other spots on the Cape’s Outer Beach, waiting to see the full moon at its closest approach to earth. The weather cooperated beautifully; the skies were crystal clear and a light north wind blew down the beach. Some sat in the cars, others walked down to the beach, huddled in blankets. One woman I passed had three youngsters in tow. The kids raced and yelled like banshees as she settled wearily on a bench on the stairs, shouting after them, “You’ve got ten minutes!”

As the moon rose out of the sea like a giant blood-red balloon, various cheers and shouts went up from the watchers. Some took photos of it on their iPhones, which struck me as the ultimate example of making too little out of too much. As the lunar sphere continued to rise, it went through its various colors phases from dark red-orange to pale cream yellow, and its light broke on the pulsing waves like millions of tiny twisting gleaming snakes.

According to National Geographic, this “super” full moon was about 20% brighter and 15% bigger than an ordinary full moon. The moon was certainly startlingly bright, and the sea was effulgent with its broken reflections. But I wondered: could we really tell that it was that much brighter or that much larger than other full moons? How many of us would have remarked, or bothered to come out to watch this event had we not been notified in advance about it by the media? Even one of the astronomers at the Griffiths Observatory in Los Angeles admitted, “I doubt that most people will notice anything unusual about this full moon.”

So was it, in fact, just a media event, a purely conceptual happening? I’m not sure. On one hand, it was certainly not in the same category as a lunar eclipse, where the effect of the earth’s shadow passing across the face of the moon is visually obvious. On the other hand, it wasn’t a purely artificial event like the rare, so-called “blue moon,” which occurs when there are two full moons in one calendar month – hence the phrase, “Once in a blue moon.” In that case, it’s a purely human artifact – the calendar – that creates the phenomenon.  Yet people will go outside to observe a “blue moon’ and feel that they have witnessed something remarkable.

No, this “supermoon” seemed to fall somewhere in-between. On one hand, it was an actual, measurable, astronomical event. On the other, it was something we likely wouldn’t have noticed without being coached to look, and then we were probably experiencing it more mentally than physically.

Still, it was heartening to see our pagan instincts still alive, to see so many people willing to give up the comforts of their homes, TVs, computers, and movie theaters to witness the moon, in all her glory, bending near the earth – so near, so beautiful, so ours.

Robert Finch is a nature writer living in Wellfleet. 'A Cape Cod Notebook' won the 2006 New England Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Radio Writing.