Supermoon in the spotlight without a cape | OPINION

That’s right, I’m talking about the supermoon. Or should I say not-so-supermoon?

Aside from the fact that it didn’t remotely resemble Superman, Batman, Spiderman – or any of the “super” men for that matter; when it comes to moon standards, it didn’t seem to be overly super. 

It was bright – I will give it that. Although so was my lamp when I first changed it to an LED light. 

But then maybe I’m just spoilt for choice? After all, I do have an astronomer for a father. 

I grew up in a house with a small telescope greeting guests in the front hall and believing the Easter Bunny lived on the moon. 

I have peered through a telescope to focus in on the rings of Saturn so many times that now it’s just kind of a ‘meh’ moment. 

And to squish my perspective even more, my name went up with the Mars Rover when I was kid as part of a Earth collection to greet the aliens which lived there (at least that’s what I thought it was for). 

So I spoke to the man himself – my Dad – to see what his opinion of this historical moment was. 

And he laughed, he caught his breath, and then he said: “I don’t know why people go out and look at it”.

Yep. Not exactly a proud moment for the astronomical community really. But after he got his glass half-full comments out of the way, my old man actually made a pretty good point. 

“It gives people a reason to go out and look at the moon”.

As a society, we’re so busy filling our time with TV shows about dating, singing and surviving in the Sumatran jungle, that we forget to tear ourselves away from the screens. 

I mean, besides Monday night, when was the last time you walked out your door, stood on the front lawn and looked up? 

It’s one of the best views in the universe and it goes unnoticed most of the time. The moon literally had to put a spotlight on itself to get some attention. 

So before you (and I) go on to make any more comments the lack of super in Monday night’s moon, just think of this: the most out of this world view, is right outside your window. You just need to take notice. 

– Amy Martin