How To See The Supermoon
By
8 years ago
Tonight’s supermoon is the closest the moon will be to the Earth in 70 years – but how do you see it?
What is the supermoon?
A supermoon, (otherwise known by technical term ‘perigee-syzygy’) occurs when the full moon is closest to the Earth. At these times the moon appears approximately 30% brighter and 14% bigger than average, meaning the man on the moon appears almost close enough to share a cup of tea with.
Tonight’s supermoon is the closest the moon has been to the Earth in 70 years, marking a once-in-a-generation chance to see the moon at its biggest.
But before you get too excited, you should know the moon is still 221,524 miles away, even at its closest.
How do you see it?
Step one – pray for the clouds to part. Tonight is forecast to be overcast, so finding a clearing of clouds will be key. (But don’t worry if your view is just grey, grey, grey, tomorrow the supermoon will be only fractionally smaller.)
Step two – find a south-facing spot and gaze up at the sky. Late afternoon to early evening is the best time to see the supermoon, weather permitting, so check out the skies at around 5pm for your first chance to see it. The closer to the horizon the moon is, the larger it will appear. Picking a spot with minimal pollution will also give you a clearer view of the moon.
How do you photograph the supermoon?
There have already been some great images from the weekend’s supermoon sightings. The key to getting a great shot is to capture the moon above the skyline of roofs, chimney tops or trees, so as to give the moon perspective. Some of the best shots so far have featured a plane flying across the face of the supermoon.
A #supermoon rises and will be the closest full moon to Earth since 1948 pic.twitter.com/RZtGJ8huRT
— tomorraw.com ✊🇺🇸 (@tomor_raw) 14 November 2016
#supermoon2016 # #supermoon Sunday night..sight.@wcbs880 pic.twitter.com/xKEKtsDirq
— John DeGarmo (@JohnDeGarmo1) 14 November 2016
