Budding photographers had to take their chances last night as cloud cover disrupted clear shots of a supermoon – the biggest and brightest for 68 years.
But perseverance paid off for some in Stevenage, Hitchin and Biggleswade, while others such as Andrew Males ‘got lucky’.
Andrew, who had his appropriately-named comedy novel 26 Miles to the Moon published thanks to a crowdfunding effort, told the Comet he was only outside for a few minutes when he took a shot of a plane from Luton Airport passing in front of the supermoon.
The picture was taken at 8pm from his garden in Stevenage Old Town.
Ian Harris was similarly lucky with a fantastic shot of a plane ‘intercepting’ the supermoon taken from his own Stevenage garden.
Fellow Stevenage residents Dawn Brown and Carol Cooper were also able to get striking shots of the supermoon from Chells and Broadwater areas respectively, while Rob Weavers’ arty effort was taken in Hitchin.
Tim Huckle had to wait for cloud cover to clear from Biggleswade, but his patience paid off.
Not everyone was enamoured with the supermoon, though, with Ryan Milner posting a series of spoof pictures on This is Hitchin with added laughter, a Facebook group which he runs.
So what has to happen for there to be a supermoon? First, it must be a full moon and, second, the moon must be at a point during its oval-shaped orbit where it is particularly close to Earth (called a perigree).
It is about 30,000 miles closer to Earth during a perigree, as opposed to an apogee – the term used when it is further away.
If you missed it this time there is due to be another supermoon on Wednesday, December 14, but it won’t be as big as last night’s – the biggest since January 1948.
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