Super fast moving Supermoon - anyone else see this?

I live in Scotland and tonight at around 10.45pm on 31st January I stood outside and witnessed tonight's supermoon. I was extremely surprised to see it moving really fast upwards in the sky. My first thought was that it is an effect of it being closer to Earth and therefore appearing to move faster. After around 5-10 minutes of it flying upwards it slowed down and is now in its usual position and can't be seen moving with the naked eye which is normal.

I googled this phenomena but cannot seem to find anyone else talking about seeing a sight like this.

I did video it and will upload as soon as I can but just curious if anyone is familiar with this or knows of this phenomena?


It literally looked like it was flying!

Edit to add videos in this post.


link to vid

shorter vid

3rd vid

a reply to: daftpink


Also in scotland, was looking at it about an hour ago, so vaguely close to when you were observing. Central Scotland. Looked quite normal here if that's any help?

originally posted by: daftpink
I live in Scotland and tonight at around 10.45pm on 31st January I stood outside and witnessed tonight's supermoon. I was extremely surprised to see it moving really fast upwards in the sky. My first thought was that it is an effect of it being closer to Earth and therefore appearing to move faster. After around 5-10 minutes of it flying upwards it slowed down and is now in its usual position and can't be seen moving with the naked eye which is normal.

I googled this phenomena but cannot seem to find anyone else talking about seeing a sight like this.

I did video it and will upload as soon as I can but just curious if anyone is familiar with this or knows of this phenomena?

It literally looked like it was flying!

Do you often watch the moon traverse the sky?

Once, about 35 years ago, I was driving south with an older friend (he was in his thirties, I was under 20). The sun was setting to the west and it was a beautiful sunset. I asked him to pull over on the shoulder of the road. He did, and I walked up a hill to the east of the road and sat on a rock. He followed. As we watched the sun drop behind the horizon, he asked me surprisedly if it always went down that quickly. I assured him that that was the normal speed at which it sat.

I asked him if he'd ever sat and watched a sunset before. He said that he had not. At around 35 years of age, this was the first time he'd ever actually sat down to watch the sun go down!

That my friend was a 'Tennents Super Moon'

Apart from it looking bigger and brighter than normal, down here in Jersey nothing has seemed out of place,

I must have spent a good hour altogether staring up tonight while I've been out back for a smokeski,

Happened this morning and we watched it over Lake Michigan, and right at full the clouds moved in and it was gone. nice though.

Just went out to check on it again and the moon is about where I would expect it to be after an hour or so.

So maybe you experienced a local distortion field? Optical illusion?

Staggery feet?

It's a wee bit chilly out there tonight though eh.

originally posted by: incoserv

originally posted by: daftpink
I live in Scotland and tonight at around 10.45pm on 31st January I stood outside and witnessed tonight's supermoon. I was extremely surprised to see it moving really fast upwards in the sky. My first thought was that it is an effect of it being closer to Earth and therefore appearing to move faster. After around 5-10 minutes of it flying upwards it slowed down and is now in its usual position and can't be seen moving with the naked eye which is normal.

I googled this phenomena but cannot seem to find anyone else talking about seeing a sight like this.

I did video it and will upload as soon as I can but just curious if anyone is familiar with this or knows of this phenomena?

It literally looked like it was flying!

Do you often watch the moon traverse the sky?

Once, about 35 years ago, I was driving south with an older friend (he was in his thirties, I was under 20). The sun was setting to the west and it was a beautiful sunset. I asked him to pull over on the shoulder of the road. He did, and I walked up a hill to the east of the road and sat on a rock. He followed. As we watched the sun drop behind the horizon, he asked me surprisedly if it always went down that quickly. I assured him that that was the normal speed at which it sat.

I asked him if he'd ever sat and watched a sunset before. He said that he had not. At around 35 years of age, this was the first time he'd ever actually sat down to watch the sun go down!

That's a good point. Sometimes I watch the moon rise against the trees or mountains here, and it skips along at a fair old rate close to the horizon.

Except an hour ago when OP was observing, it probably wasn't anywhere near the horizon. It was high in the sky for me.

Thanks for the replies...
I wasn't under the influence of anything:-)
I do moon watch and sun watch a lot, it was nothing like a sunset which I'm aware can appear rapid. The clouds were also quite still, not much wind here tonight.
My daughter also saw it.
Here is the first video, apologies for the poor quality. But I think you can see it move upwards faster than what you normally can with the naked eye.

link to vid

shorter vid

I was half arse trying to watch it this morning. It was cold though so I didnt linger the entire duration. Popped in and out a few times. The last stretch it still had a nice gap over the horizon, seemed like I was only in 10 minutes and went back out and wamo it was a goner and it was light out.

a reply to: daftpink

It looks normal, the clouds moving make it look like the Moon is moving fast, but it's not. Measure the distance between the Moon and the lighted windows in the houses and you will see.

a reply to: daftpink

It does look like that when strong winds blow the clouds across it. I've seen the same illusion and it's usually when I'm pissed up which is pretty much all the time...

a reply to: ArMaP

I know what I saw, and my 14 year old daughter, she asked why it was moving that way. The clouds were not moving in any way to give that illusion, one which I have seen before. I tried to hold the camera still after I zoomed in on the longer video so you can actually see the moon go out of shot and get a better perspective. I have two more short videos will try upload them too maybe it will make them clearer.

originally posted by: daftpink
Thanks for the replies...
I wasn't under the influence of anything:-)
I do moon watch and sun watch a lot, it was nothing like a sunset which I'm aware can appear rapid. The clouds were also quite still, not much wind here tonight.
My daughter also saw it.
Here is the first video, apologies for the poor quality. But I think you can see it move upwards faster than what you normally can with the naked eye.

link to vid

shorter vid

I see nothing unusual in that video. Sorry bud.

originally posted by: daftpink
I know what I saw, and my 14 year old daughter, she asked why it was moving that way.

I only know what I see in the video, but I do know what I see in the video.

The clouds were not moving in any way to give that illusion, one which I have seen before.

The clouds are clearly moving away from the camera.

I tried to hold the camera still after I zoomed in on the longer video so you can actually see the moon go out of shot and get a better perspective. I have two more short videos will try upload them too maybe it will make them clearer.

The zoomed in part is useless, as it has no references, the start is the part that has references and that shows that the Moon was moving at normal speed, while the clouds were moving fast.

a reply to: ArMaP

The clouds were not moving tonight, albeit very slowly not fast enough to cause that illusion.

What is 'normal speed' for the moon to move at?

The moon shifted from a low position to one high up where it sits now in less than ten minutes.

If you can measure from the street lights and houses you can see that they stay still while the moon moves upwards faster than I've ever seen with the naked eye.

I regret zooming in but was trying to show the moon pan move out of the camera shot whilst I held it still to capture the phenomena as my phone camera isn't the best.

a reply to: daftpink

I was sitting with my back to the large tenement kitchen window, so did not see the Moon move, but my dog came in, looked up to the moon and did a bit of a bark at exactly the same time as your anomoly. I am in Glasgow, we had far less cloud in the sky.

a reply to: daftpink

I watched it from start to finish,I start work at 1330,kind of looked like a regular eclipse to me,did look cool like a basketball color,and got bigger looking

is it the clouds moving over the moon your talking about? the rotation of the moon and earth didnt change

I have seen this before a few years ago, Autumn of 2012.

It was late, maybe 10:30pm and I lived on the country side, sky was clear and the moon was full and bright as a beacon.

Standing by my tree in my yard, I was gazing at the moon, and within minutes of this it suddenly sped up and moved at a rapid speed vertically in the sky.
If I held my middle finger adjacent to the moon in the sky, it went from the bottom knuckle to the tip of the finger nail in seconds.

I was shocked and amazed. I couldn't understand this. I searched the next morning all over the net if anyone saw this or it was reported. I've told people, asked people.. no one experienced it, no one believes me for obvious reasons.

If the moon were to move at such a rapid pace, there would be consequences on earth most likely; physics, gravity, oceans etc.. these were my thoughts after witnessing.

I know what I saw, daftpink knows what they saw.