Supermoon This Weekend

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This weekend will provide the full Moon’s closest approach of the year to Earth. On Saturday, May 5, 2012 the Moon could appear as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full Moons of 2012, according to some calculations. Will you notice it? Not if you haven’t really been paying attention, or have a reference point to compare it to other full Moons. And it certainly won’t have any adverse effects on Earth, as this closest approach happens every year — just a fact of orbital mechanics. But perhaps a great way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo is to spend the evening gazing at the Moon!

Every month, as the Moon circles the Earth in its elongated orbit, its distance from the Earth varies. This weekend, the Moon is reaching what’s known as its perigee, the closest point to Earth in its orbit. It will be about 356,953 kilometers (221,802 miles) from Earth on Saturday. Apogee — when the Moon is farthest away — varies, but is around 405,000 km (252,000 miles) away.

What is most interesting is that the timing of the perigee and full Moon is really, really close: The full moon occurs at 03:34 UTC on May 6 (11:34 p.m. EDT on May 5 )eastern and perigee follows at 03:35 UTC (11:35 p.m. EDT)

David Morrison, from NASA says “supermoon” is not an astronomical term and he confirms a supermoon has no effect on Earth, and that the change in size is hardly noticeable to the average person. If you miss it, the Moon will be very nearly as close at the next full Moon, and very nearly as close as it was at the last full Moon.

But even better is that two weeks after the “supermoon” on May 5th, the Moon will be at apogee as it lines up in front of the Sun for an amazing annular eclipse on May 20th. An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.

If you’re a photographer, take a picture of the Moon and send it to us. If we get a some good images, we’ll share them. Join our Flickr group, or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain a little about it such as when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.

Here’s a video NASA put out about the Supermoon: