'A bit overrated': supermoon not so super, says Edmonton astronomer

Stargazers who stayed up late Sunday to catch a glimpse of the supermoon may have been a little disappointed.

Apparently the supermoon wasn't as super as expected.

It's the closest a full moon has been to Earth since 1948, but the celestial sightis not so spectacular for those who study thestars.

"People might think if it's a supermoon it should be really special, but in fact it's not," Frank Florian, an astronomer with the Telus World of Science, said in an interview with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.

"People won't really notice a difference. Its' nice that people want to come and look at the night sky but it's a bit overrated."

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Supermoons happen when a full moon is closest to Earth. The moon orbits our planet in an oval shape so sometimes it comes closer to us than at other times.

Florian saidMonday's moon, like Sunday's will be brighter and slightly larger than usual, but the difference may be undetectable to the naked eye.

"If you look at the moon and try and compare it to the full moons of past, you might not notice any difference, because you don't have any way to do a side-by-side comparison of one to the other," he said.

"It will seem bigger as it's rising and setting on the horizon but that's an optical illusion."

'Astronomers and astrologersdon't get along verywell'

The term supermoon isn't even based in science, according to Florian.

An astrologer coined the term in the 1970s.

"You know, astronomers and astrologers don't get along very well, and no one took notice of this term supermoon for many, many years," Florian said.

"I never heard that term in my entire schooling or any time, because in astronomy we call it perigee-syzygy which basically means you get this alignment of the sun, Earth and moon, but whatever."

"So people have embraced this term now and even astronomers say, 'OK,we'll call it a supermoon too.' "

Despite his lacklustre feelings about the celestial happening, Florian was out late into the night with his camera to capture a few shots of the supermoon.

"If we get some clearing of the skies, you can actually watch the moon set, and that actually provides for some cool views," Florian said.

"It gets those kind of orange hues which makes it kind of special."