So go outside on the night of a full supermoon. It exceeds the disk size and brightness of a micro-moon (year’s smallest full moon) by some 30%. A supermoon exceeds the disk size and brightness of an average-sized full moon by some 15%. Most of us can’t tell any difference inthe size of a supermoon and an ordinary full moonīut … do supermoons do look brighter than ordinary full moons? Yes! By a noticeable amount. But you’d have to be a very keen observer to notice it. It’s true experienced observers do say they can detect a difference. Nowadays, most people seem to realize that supermoons don’t look bigger to the eye than ordinary full moons. The hype aspect of supermoons probably stemmed from an erroneous impression people had when the word supermoon came into popular usage … maybe a few decades ago? Some people mistakenly believed a full supermoon would look much, much bigger to the eye. We notice even some diehards are starting to use it now. Many people now know and use the word supermoon. Some astronomers complain about the name supermoon. More photos of the December 2017 supermoon. Here’s a comparison between the December 3, 2017, full moon at perigee or supermoon (closest to Earth for the month) and the year’s farthest full moon in June 2017 at apogee (farthest from Earth for the month) by Muzamir Mazlan at Telok Kemang Observatory, Port Dickson, Malaysia. But we can figure out the dates from other tables on his Astropixels website. New supermoons in 2022įred Espenak does not have a table for new moon supermoons. On that date, full moon and lunar perigee fall on the same day. The supermoon of July 13 will be the closest supermoon for 2022. The supermoon of May 16, 2022, will undergo a total lunar eclipse, visible from North America. Contrast these moon distances to the average moon distance of 238,900 miles (384,472 km). EarthSky lunar calendars now available! Going fast!įred Espenak’s full supermoon table gives us these values – dates and moon distances – for supermoons in 2022. Love the moon? See its phase for every day in 2022. His method of calculating supermoons takes into account changes in the moon’s orbit during each lunar cycle. He’s best known for his time at the Goddard Space Flight Center, where he became a world expert on eclipse predictions. EarthSky uses supermoon dates as determined by astronomer Fred Espenak. Nowadays, different websites calculate supermoons differently. According to Nolle’s definition, a full moon or new moon is a supermoon when it’s also within 90% of its closest point to Earth. When that happens, in the language of popular culture, we have a supermoon.Īs it’s used today, the word supermoon was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979.
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The new or full moon closely coincides with perigee several times each year.
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Perigee – from the root words peri meaning near and geo meaning Earth – is the moon’s closest point to Earth in a month. New moon happens when the moon (in its monthly orbit of Earth) goes more or less between the sun and Earth.įull moon happens when the moon (in its monthly orbit) is on the opposite side of Earth from the sun. But are supermoons brighter than ordinary full moons? Yes! Photo by Rebecca Lacey in Cambridge, Idaho. A supermoon is a new or full moon at its closest to Earth for the month.