'Supermoon' Preview

A nearly full perigee moon rises in the east just above Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa just after 8:00 PM on Friday, March 18, 2011. This was one day before the celebrated "supermoon" event witnessed by Earth observers. The perigee (closest position in an elliptical orbit) full moon--occurring at 2:00 PM CDT on Saturday, March 19--appeared 14 percent larger and about 40 percent brighter than an apogee (opposite of perigee) full moon, and has not been viewed this big since March, 1993. This image is a composite photo. The moon was shot separately with a 1/2000 second exposure at f/7.1, 640 ISO and a 200mm focal length on auto focus. The main portion of the image was a 2.5 second exposure at f/7.1, 640 ISO and a 18mm focal length on manual focus. Skies were mainly cloudy in Cedar Rapids at the time of "super" moonrise on Saturday.