On November 14, 2016 – see also the night before Nov. 13 – the moon will be the closest, lagest and brighter in an 86 years period! it’ll be roughly 14% bigger and 30% brighter than an average full moon.
Last time full moon (supermoon) was as close to Earth, was January 26, 1948. More over, the moon won’t come this close to Earth again until November 25, 2034.
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Supermoon happens because the elliptical orbit of our lunar occasionally brings it in line with the Sun and the Earth. When this happens, and the moon is on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun, it appears bigger and brighter
The moon appears to shrink and grow in the sky becouse its orbit is not a perfect circle, but rather, a modest ellipse. As the moon swings between its closest point (perigee) and its furthest point (apogee), its distance to Earth varies by approximately 30, 000 miles. This translates to a size variation comparable to the difference between a nickel and a quarter.
NASA Planetary Program Executive Gordon Johnston notes, it’ll be very hard to tell the difference between this super-dupermoon and more ordinary supermoons with the naked eye. “You’d need a ruler, ” he said.
Johnston added that if you’re on the East Coast, the best time to check out this once-in-a-lifetime supermoon is going to be early on the morning of November 14th, before the moon sets and the sky starts to lighten at dawn.
Not only is pre-dawn the closest to the full moon perigee us East Coasters are going to get, but as the moon sets, it can appear unnaturally large, owing to the fact that your brain starts measuring it against other objects on the horizon.