SUPER MOON

Submitted by ub on

This weekend we will witness the biggest, brightest full moon of the year shining in the sky, which makes this the perfect time to take in the wonders of the night sky.

Super-moon ranks as the biggest celestial events of the year. The true message of the super-moon lies in a happy medium: It's not a monstrous moon, but it's a great excuse to moon over a monthly sight that we sometimes take for granted.

You can start looking out for June's Super-moon on Saturday night. It's this year's best example of a perigee full moon. Tides will be stronger than usual, but that's nothing to get alarmed about.

For example, for New York City, high water (6.3 feet or 1.9 meters) at The Battery comes at 8:58 p.m. EDT on Sunday, or more than 12 hours after perigee. From Cape Fear, N.C., the highest tide (6.5 feet or 1.9 m) will be attained at 9:06 p.m. EDT on Monday, while at Boston Harbor a peak tide height of 12.3 feet (3.7 m) comes at 12:48 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, almost 2 days after the time of perigee.

A supermoon is a new or full moon that happens to coincide with a close approach of the moon to the earth. Saturday's full moon will be the closest it has been to Earth in 18 years, according to Spaceweather.com.

http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/playlist/8178/4109330?wpid=8989

The biggest, brightest Moon of the year is almost here. On 23 June 2013, a Supermoon will be occurring. What that means is that the Moon will be closer to the Earth than at any other time during the year - in fact, the upcoming Supermoon will be the closest encounter between the Earth and the Moon until August 2014.

The Moon will reach its closest distance to the Earth at exactly 7:32 am EDT (4:32 am PDT) on 23 June, but because it will be peaking in the early morning hours, both 22 June and 23 June will put on similar shows. So either day will be a good opportunity to see the larger-and-brighter-than-normal Supermoon.

This year the Supermoon will be up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than a typical Full Moon is. This is a result of the Moon reaching its perigree - the closest that it gets to the Earth during the course of its orbit. During perigree on 23 June the Moon will be "only" about 221,824 miles away, as compared to the 252,581 miles away that it is at its furthest distance from the Earth (apogee). The Moon will actually be at apogee only two weeks after the Supermoon, on 7 July.

www.nasa.gov