The New Year’s Supermoon: images
The New Year’s Supermoon started 2018 in a great way. We observed it from Rome, Italy, despite the clouds and could share it live with many thousands of people from all around the globe.
The 1 Jan. 2018 New Year’s Supermoon was shining in Rome above the Altar of the Fatherland, Ara Coeli, Basilica of Saint Mary Major and Palazzo Senatorio.
At Virtual Telescope, as always, we wanted to share this event, also to bring to our friends worldwide our best wishes for a stunning year from the Eternal City. I have been thinking a lot about the place from where observe the rising Moon, finally deciding for the Janiculum Hill: the sky was not clear, with potential rain falling at any time, so I needed to have my car as close as possible, to recover my equipment.
I reached the site 30 minutes before the Moonrise, finding a lot of clouds covering the NE horizon, from where the Moon was supposed to climb the heaven. Despite this, I decided to setup my equipment: a sturdy tripod, a Canon 7D mark II DSLR body and the venerable Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.
The setup ready to image the Supermoon
As expected (Murphy’s Laws!), the rain fell soon after I finished installing everything, so I needed to promptly store everything in my cases, mounting all that stuff back once the rain stopped.
At that point, it was clear that we were going to miss the Moonrise, as the sky was clearing too slowly and when we had the first glimpse of the Supermoon, our satellite was already above the roofs. Luckily, the twilight was still shedding some light all around, so I could capture what I wanted: the bright lunar disk and the stunning panorama of Rome.
The 1 Jan. 2018 Supermoon shining above the skyline of Rome
A lot of people were on the same site, facing east and enjoying the New Year’s Supermoon: it was nice to see those casual stargazers trying to capture that beauty, even with simple devices, like mobiles or compact cameras. As we say, the Supermoon is able to invite a lot of people looking up, so it is a very precious friend for us loving sharing the Cosmos.
Clouds, at some point, added something magic: seeing the full Supermoon playing with them, with plenty of colors like lunar “rainbows”, resembled a stunning painting.
The 1 Jan. 2018 New Year’s Supermoon was playing with clouds
It was a continuously evolving show, it was honestly hard to move your eyes away.
Plenty of colors across the clouds with the 1 Jan. 2018 Supermoon
At the end, before leaving, the sky was completely clear and we could capture a close-up of this New Year’s Supermoon:
The 1 Jan. 2018 Supermoon: close-up
Of course, we shared all this with our audience worldwide, making possible for thousands of curious people to enjoy the New Year’s Supermoon above the stunning skyline of Rome. Below find the podcast of that live feed.
We are already looking forward to share with the the next Supermoon, on 31 Jan. 2017: it will be a full Supermoon, a Blue Moon (2nd full Moon of the same month, january) and also a Red Moon (a lunar total eclipse will happen!): stay tuned!
Support The Virtual Telescope Project!
Support us! Please, donate and receive unique, LIMITED EDITION set of images of the stunning comet 12P/Pons-Brooks with Andromeda Galaxy, of potentially hazardous asteroids, space stations and much more, specifically made for supporters like you!
(you can adjust the amount later)
