Mark December 4 in your calendar because you’ll have a chance to see something very special in the sky that night – supermoon.
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A ‘supermoon’ is a popular term for the lunar event which coincides with a new full moon and the moon making a closer-than-usual approach to Earth.
Basically, because the moon orbits earth in more of an oval than a circle it means that sometimes it is much closer to Earth than normal – combine that with a full moon and you have yourself a big, beautiful ‘supermoon’.
This won’t be the first supermoon of the year, but it is the only one we’ve been able to observe with the naked eye – this is because each other time the moon has been close, it’s been during a ‘new moon’ or when the moon is basically blacked out.
Got a smart phone? You can hand hold it over a telescope eyepiece and be careful aiming – you might get you a few nice moon shots for Instagram.
The best time to enjoy a Super Full Moon is at moonrise, a little after 8pm on the east coast of Australia on December 4.
Supermoon facts:
- The supermoon on November 14, 2016 was the closest since January 26, 1948.
- The point on the Moon's orbit closest to Earth is called the perigee and the point farthest away is the apogee.
- A micromoon is a full moon or new moon that takes place when the centre of the Moon is further than 405,000kms from the centre of Earth.
- Although the sun and the moon’s alignment cause a small increase in tectonic activity, the effects of the supermoon on Earth are minor and they definitely aren’t linked with mood changes in people.