This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Sunday, December 3rd is the night of the super moon.
What's a super moon? It's when the full moon will appear slightly larger and brighter than normal in the sky when it rises in the early evening. It's the last (and the only) supermoon of the year.
What's special about a supermoon?
The moon doesn't orbit the earth in a perfect circle. It takes a saucer shape path called an ellipse, that's longer than it's wide. During it's orbit the moon gets closer, than farther away from the earth. At what's called 'perigee' when the moon is closest to the Earth, it's approximately 31,068 milles closer than it is at 'apogee' i.e. when it's the farthest.
In the meantime, we see the various phases of the moon such as full, waxing, waning, crescent and gibbous, dependent on where the sun facing side of the moon is.
A super moon is when these cycles match up and the full moon is near or at it's perigee. That's when you get a full 'super moon' that's a little bit bigger and a little bit brighter than every other full moon of the year. It happens about one out of 14 full moons.
The difference between a normal full moon and a supermoon isn't a lot. Compare a 15 inch pizza to a 16 inch pizza and you've got some idea of the difference in size.
The best time to see it is as it rises, around 5:15 p.m. EST. If you miss this one, the first two full moons of 2018 will also be near perigee, so, get your backyard telescopes ready.
