{"id":19174,"date":"2016-11-13T20:09:22","date_gmt":"2016-11-13T12:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/this-supermoon-will-be-extra-super\/"},"modified":"2016-11-13T20:09:22","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13T12:09:22","slug":"this-supermoon-will-be-extra-super","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/this-supermoon-will-be-extra-super\/","title":{"rendered":"This supermoon will be extra-super"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_288615\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-288615\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-288615 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/161112-moon-seattle-durkan-630x476.jpg\" alt=\"161112-moon-seattle-durkan\" width=\"630\" height=\"476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/161112-moon-seattle-durkan-630x476.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/161112-moon-seattle-durkan-768x580.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/161112-moon-seattle-durkan-1240x936.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-288615\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Seattle photographer Tim Durkan captured this view of the full moon behind the Space Needle. (Credit: TimDurkan.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The full moon is looking bigger and brighter this week than it\u2019s looked since 1948&nbsp;\u2013 and although you may not notice just how much more super this \u201csupermoon\u201d is, it\u2019s definitely worth looking up. If the skies are ever clear, that is.<\/p>\n<p>The moon is due to be at its closest at 3:22 a.m. PT Monday, and it\u2019ll reach the peak of its full phase a few hours later at 5:52 a.m. The bottom line is that the lunar disk will look about 14 percent wider than it does at its farthest distance from Earth, and shine about 30 percent brighter.<\/p>\n<p>This doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019d have to get up in the wee hours of Monday morning to catch a super view.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been telling people to go out at night on either Sunday or Monday night to see the supermoon,\u201d Noah Petro, deputy project scientist for NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, said in a NASA feature about the phenomenon. \u201cThe difference in distance from one night to the next will be very subtle, so if it\u2019s cloudy on Sunday, go out on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Seeing the moon on the rise just after sunset, in autumnal twilight, can make for a romantic picture. And some say the moon looks biggest under those conditions, due to what\u2019s known as the \u201cmoon illusion.\u201d But German science writer Daniel Fischer argues in his Sky &amp; Telescope preview that the sight is actually most super at midnight, when the moon\u2019s glow is directly above. This chart illustrates the difference.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the moon arcs from the horizon to nearly overhead, its distance changes by a few thousand kilometers,\u201d he explains. \u201cThis changes the disk\u2019s apparent diameter by about 1 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Showstopper Nov. 14 Supermoon Is the Closest Moon to Earth Since 1948\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tTEQMemI3Pc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>So-called supermoons result from the combination of factors. Because the moon traces an elliptical rather than a precisely circular orbit around Earth, its distance shrinks and grows over the course of each lunar cycle. If the moon happens to be relatively far away at the time that it\u2019s full, it looks smaller and shines less brightly&nbsp;than average. If it\u2019s super-close, it\u2019s bigger and brighter than average.<\/p>\n<p>Some skywatchers take the view that&nbsp;a supermoon occurs anytime the moon goes full when it\u2019s within 90 percent of its closest approach to Earth. By that measure, this is just one of several supermoons&nbsp;taking place during the latter half of the year.<\/p>\n<p>I prefer to define a supermoon more simply: It\u2019s the closest full moon for a given year. By that measure, this month\u2019s full moon&nbsp;is the one and only supermoon of 2016. That turns Monday into a \u201cMoon-day\u201d worth celebrating as a loony holiday.<\/p>\n<p>Seattle\u2019s November weather isn\u2019t ideal for catching this week\u2019s supermoon. The forecast calls for cloudy skies until midweek. But even then, it\u2019s worth taking a moment with an&nbsp;almost-super moon. And if we\u2019re completely clouded out, make a note to look for photos on SpaceWeather.com.<\/p>\n<p>While you\u2019re at it, mark your calendar for the supermoons ahead. But you\u2019ll have to mark a lot of calendars to get to an opportunity as good as this week\u2019s: The next time the full moon comes this close will be in the year 2034.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_288580\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-288580\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-288580\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/161111-moon-three-630x245.jpg\" alt=\"Supermoons\" width=\"630\" height=\"245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/161111-moon-three-630x245.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/161111-moon-three-768x299.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/161111-moon-three-1240x483.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/161111-moon-three.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-288580\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">These charts show the eastern sky at nightfall on the dates of the supermoons in 1948, 2016, and 2034. The distances shown are from Earth\u2019s center to the moon\u2019s center. The surface-to-surface distances are about 5,000 miles less. Although November\u2019s full moon occurs on the 14th, the middle panel shows the evening of Sunday the 13th because for most North Americans that\u2019s when the moon will look fullest and be closest. (Credit: Bob King \/ Stellarium)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Special thanks to Seattle photographer Tim Durkan for sharing his photo of the Space Needle moon. For more great shots, check out Durkan\u2019s website and his Facebook page.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seattle photographer Tim Durkan captured this view of the full moon behind the Space Needle. (Credit: TimDurkan.com) The full moon is looking bigger and brighter this week than it\u2019s looked since 1948&nbsp;\u2013 and although you may not notice just how much more super this \u201csupermoon\u201d is, it\u2019s definitely worth looking up. If the skies are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[625,4378,4840],"class_list":["post-19174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-moon","tag-skywatching","tag-supermoon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19174"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}