If you are impressed by the night sky and the ornaments that embellishes it, you can look out for a beautiful moon this weekend. Astronomers are saying that the most “Super Moon” of 2013 will be visible today. According to Web site earthsky.org, full moon falls on June 23. It stated this full moon is not only the closest and largest full moon of the year, but it also presents the moon’s closest encounter with earth for all of 2013. It said the moon will not be as close to the earth again until August 2014.
The T&T Guardian spoke with Shirin Haque, senior lecturer/ astronomer at UWI, St Augustine Campus. She explained what is meant by the term “supermoon.” Haque said the moon does not orbit the Earth in a perfect circle, rather its orbit is elliptical and, therefore, there are times when it is at its furthest point from earth (known as apogee) and the closest point to Earth is known as perigee. When the date of a full moon coincides with the time when the moon is at its closest approach to us, then it is known as a supermoon. It actually appears bigger in the sky than a typical full moon at another time.
Asked how “super” is a supermoon, Haque said, “As super as they get! This moon will be about 30 per cent brighter. Sometimes the full moon does not occur precisely when it is closest to us, while still yielding a brighter than average full moon as the moon begins to near the planet earth. The supermoon occurring this weekend is, therefore, more super than usual!
“The full moon tends to be up all night. From sunset to dawn.” The full moon will occur at 7.32 am today, as such, the phenomenon can be observed tonight.