Have a look at the moon tonight and any night in the next few days. It appears bigger and brighter than usual because the sun is shining fully on it. It is called a supermoon.
The orbit of the moon around the earth is an ellipse, not a circle. This means it is closer to the earth at two points in its orbit. The technical term for when the moon is closest to the earth is perigee. When it is a full moon and at the closest point to the earth, sometimes it lines up with the sun but not very often. The last time this happened was on January 26th 1948, 68 years ago. The next time will be November 25th 2034 so this is a very rare occurrence and may be the only time in your life that you will see it.
In New Zealand, full moon is November 15th but it is very bright tonight and looks almost full. If it is a cloudy night, you may not see the moon, but I saw it tonight even though there are clouds. The best time to see it is just after moonrise or just before moonset, when it is low on the horizon.
A full moon brings high tides which could cause flooding if there are strong winds at the same time.
Vocabulary
• orbit (n, v) – path made by moon or a planet like the earth
• ellipse (n) – oval shape, flat circle
• rare (adj) – not very often
• occurrence (n) – happening; occur (v) – to happen
• moonrise (n) – when the moon comes up; compare sunrise
• moonset (n) – when the moon goes down; compare sunset
• tide (n) – movement of waves in the sea in and out