Supermoon of 14 November is the closest Moon to Earth since 1948

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center / Astronomy Now

10 November 2016 Astronomy Now

This image approximates the look of the full Moon on 14 November 2016 with data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. When a full Moon makes its closest pass to Earth in its orbit it appears up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter, making it a supermoon. This month’s is especially ‘super’ for two reasons: it is the only supermoon this year to be completely full, and it is the closest Moon to Earth since 1948. The Moon won’t be this super again until 2034! Image credits: NASA Goddard / Clare Skelly / NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter / NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualisation Studio.
This image approximates the look of the full Moon on 14 November 2016 with data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. When a full Moon makes its closest pass to Earth in its orbit it appears up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter, making it a supermoon. This month’s is especially ‘super’ for two reasons: it is the only supermoon this year to be completely full, and it is the closest Moon to Earth since 1948. The Moon won’t be this super again until 2034! Image credits: NASA Goddard / Clare Skelly / NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter / NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualisation Studio.
The Moon is a familiar sight in our sky, brightening dark nights and reminding us of space exploration, past and present. But the upcoming supermoon — on Monday, 14 November — will be especially “super” because it’s the closest full Moon to Earth since 1948. We won’t see another supermoon like this until 2034.

The Moon is closest to the Earth at 11:23 UT (11:23am GMT) on 14 November 2016 when the distance between the centres of our two worlds will be 221,525 miles (356,510 kilometres). Full Moon occurs at 13:52 UT (1:52pm GMT), so observers in the British Isles looking for the perfect astrophoto opportunity should find an unobstructed east-northeast horizon to witness moonrise in bright twilight at 4:46pm GMT as seen from the heart of the UK (4:34pm in Norwich; 4:43pm in London; 4:42pm in Edinburgh).

The Moon’s orbit around Earth is slightly elliptical so sometimes it is closer and sometimes it’s farther away. When the Moon is full as it makes its closest pass to Earth it is known as a supermoon. At perigree — the point at which the moon is closest to Earth — the Moon can be as much as 14 percent closer to Earth than at apogee, when the Moon is farthest from our planet. The full Moon appears that much larger in diameter and because it is larger shines 30 percent more moonlight onto the Earth. Image credit: NASA.
The Moon’s orbit around Earth is slightly elliptical so sometimes it is closer and sometimes it’s farther away. When the Moon is full as it makes its closest pass to Earth it is known as a supermoon. At perigree — the point at which the moon is closest to Earth — the Moon can be as much as 14 percent closer to Earth than at apogee, when the Moon is farthest from our planet. The full Moon appears that much larger in diameter and, because it is larger, shines 30 percent more moonlight onto the Earth. Image credit: NASA.
The biggest and brightest Moon for observers in the United States will be on Monday morning just before dawn. On Monday, 14 November, the Moon is at perigee at 6:23am EST and “opposite” the Sun for the full Moon at 8:52am EST (after moonset for most of the US).

If you’re not an early riser in the US, no worries. “I’ve been telling people to go out at night on either Sunday or Monday night to see the supermoon,” said Noah Petro, deputy project scientist for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. “The difference in distance from one night to the next will be very subtle, so if it’s cloudy on Sunday, go out on Monday. Any time after sunset should be fine. Since the Moon is full, it’ll rise at nearly the same time as sunset, so I’d suggest that you head outside after sunset, or once it’s dark and the Moon is a bit higher in the sky. You don’t have to stay up all night to see it, unless you really want to!”

For Australasian astronomers, the full Moon of 12:52am ACT on 15 November in the Australian capital (which is 2:52am NZDT in New Zealand) occurs 2½ hours after the Moon reaches this nearest perigee of the year. So, if you gaze at the Moon in the north-northwest when it is full shortly before 3am local time in New Zealand on 15 November, note that it will be 33.8 arcminutes in diameter.

This is actually the second of three supermoons in a row, so if the clouds don’t cooperate for you this weekend, you will have another chance next month to see the last supermoon of 2016 on Wednesday 14 December.

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