Got a Snow Moon rising. Here are the names for the Full Moons throughout the year. Here is why tonight's moon is special - from NASA's Space Weather:
SUPER SNOW MOON:There's a full Moon tonight--the biggest and brightest of 2019. According to folklore, it's the "Snow Moon." According to science, it's a Super Snow Moon, inflated in size and luminosity because it occurs on the nearside of the Moon's orbit.
Full moons vary in size because the Moon's orbit is not a circle, it's an ellipse: diagram. One side of the Moon's orbit, called "perigee," is 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other side, "apogee." Today's "supermoon" becomes full just 6 hours away from perigee, a coincidence that makes it almost 8% wider and 16% brighter than an average full Moon.
But will we be able to tell the difference just by looking? A 16% difference in brightness can easily be masked by clouds or the glare of urban lights. Also, there are no rulers floating in the sky to measure lunar diameters. Hanging high overhead with no reference points to provide a sense of scale, one full Moon looks much like any other. They're all beautiful. Monitor the realtime gallery for photos.
Leave a comment