Monday’s supermoon will be the closest full moon in almost 70 years.
The extra-supermoon will appear slightly bigger and brighter than normal early Monday morning. NASA says the closest approach will occur at 6:21 a.m. EST. The full moon will occur at 8:52 a.m. EST.
After that, the full moon won’t come this close again until 2034.
The prospect of a super-close moon has generated a lot of buzz. “However, the whole supermoon phenomenon is a little bit of a misnomer,” said Scott Young, manager of the planetarium and science gallery at the Manitoba Museum.
Young said the change in size that occurs is very small, and almost undetectable to someone who isn’t a dedicated sky watcher.
“It’s such a small amount that a lot of that is going to even just be the suggestion that it’s supposed to be bigger. When we expect to see something, we often do,” he said.
The moon travels in an oval-shaped orbit around the earth, varying between 360,000 and 400,000 kilometres. When the full moon happens to line up with the closer distance, known as the “perigee”, it creates the supermoon phenomenon.
“It’s not really something that astronomers track because it’s kind of an irrelevant thing. The closest distance happening at full moon, so what?” said Young. “If it really made a difference we’d be celebrating this all the time.”
According to NASA, the moon can appear as much as 14 per cent bigger.
While the moon won’t actually look much different than normal, Young said anything that gets people out looking at the sky and excited about astronomy, is a good thing.
A fall supermoon already occurred on Oct. 16, and the final one is set for Dec. 16, in the leadup to the New Year.
The best time to view the Nov. 14 event will be Sunday and Monday nights.
- With files from The Associated Press and Shelden Rogers
