Sky-gazers across Texas snapped shots of the supermoon this weekend, when our lunar neighbor appeared roughly 13.5 percent larger that usual.
And how does this all happen, you may ask?
Well, the moon's on an egg-shaped orbit around the earth. When it's at a point closest to Earth and it happens to be a full or new, you get a big white disc that brightens up the sky more than any other night of a given year. (Click here for a visual comparison.)
While a supermoon is by no means a new phenomena, the term itself wasn't coined until 1979 when a horoscope reader Richard Nolle offered a more digestible alternative to the technical name "perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system."
According to the Austin-based EarthSky blog, the notably unscientific word somehow slipped into media reports for the March 2011 supermoon and has been in common use ever since.
This year, the celestial bodies got it just right to give us a supermoon perfectly aligned with the first official weekend of summer.
Click through the slideshow above for images taken throughout the Lone State State.
Got a great photo of a Houston happening or everyday occurrence? Send it to barbara@culturemap.com, along with details (who, what, where and why it's special). It might make our Pix of the Day.
Krissy Jackens says, "Supermoon hanging out over the Dallas skyline, loving this night."
