Sunday night or Monday morning, you might see a much bigger moon than usual. It will be 12% bigger than it was in January and 30% brighter. This is because it is a full moon and the moon will be closer to the Earth than usual. In fact, it will only be 356,896km from Earth. This is because the orbit of the moon is not a circle, it is an ellipse.
It will be another 20 years before the moon is as close to us again – November 2034 – so don’t miss it now. The moon will be full at 6.10 on Monday morning but closest at 5.44am. Sunday evening, as the moon rises, is also a good time to view it or photograph it.
July was quite a big moon and September 9 will also be big but the super moon will be August 10th or 11th.
Karen Pollard, an astronomer from the University of Canterbury, will be on TV3’s breakfast show on Monday morning at 6.15 to talk about the supermoon.
Vocabulary
Astronomer – a scientist who studies the stars