It’s a stupid name. But the so-called “supermoon 2012″ that rose on May 5 was amazing to look at anyway–especially from above Lake Apoyo glistening in the crater of a still-active volcano in southern Nicaragua.

The technical name of the supermoon is a mouthful: “perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system” (hence the silly nickname). All you really need to know is that this moon was 14% larger and 30% brighter than normal, a phenomenon that only occurs when the full moon coincides with the moon’s closest approach to Earth. Which is not often.

Saturday’s moon was the closest and, therefore, the biggest and brightest full moon of the year since it was only about 221,802 miles from our planet, roughly 15,300 miles closer than average.

And now, supermoon 2012…

Want more lunar lunacy? Check out our amazing time-lapse photo montage of the full lunar eclipse in 2010, shot from Chichicastenango, Guatemala.