Talk:supermoon

This article has a Usage Note that formerly stated:

This is not a syzygy unless a solar eclipse or lunar eclipse also occurs.

But this is simply not true in accordance with the accepted use of the term syzygy in astronomy. There are plenty of references to refute this strange claim.

• Collins English dictionary explicitly states "the moon is at syzygy when full" under its definition of syzygy.
• In an Access Science article here, Dr Harold P. Coyle of the Harvard College Observatory explains why the term syzygy (unlike eclipse) refers to approximate alignments. He explicitly states there that "Syzygy is most often used to refer to the alignment of the Sun, Earth, and Moon at the time of new or full moon."
• From the United States Naval Observatory "American Almanac Online", glossary entry for syzygy notes two meanings. The first stresses the approximate nature of celestial alignment, and the second is the time of full and new moons (the time as opposed to the configuration that causes them in definition 1).

I added a disclaimer to the Usage Note to attract the author's attention. I will remove the Usage Note entirely "soon". ChrisJBenson (talk) 17:32, 16 July 2013 (UTC)