A rare “Supermoon” will be visible on the intervening night of 13-14 November, being the largest it has been in 70 years, given how close it will be orbiting the earth.
The moon is expected to be the biggest and brightest since January 1948, as reported by the Independent.
It will be visible to the naked eye and different phases of the moon will span over a four-hour spectacle, as reported by TIME.
The moon orbits the earth in an elliptical path, which is why sometimes it comes closer than at other times.
The stage when it’s closest to earth is called the ‘perigee’ stage and when it’s furthest away, it’s in the ‘apogee’ stage.
On the night of the Supermoon, it will be 14 per cent brighter and 30 per cent bigger than it is in the apogee stage.
The supermoon eclipse results from the rare combination of a lunar eclipse, a point in the moon’s orbit when it is closest to the earth, and the full moon closest to the fall equinox — all at once. In other words, this is a total eclipse of a super-harvest-blood-moon. It hasn’t happened in 33 years, and it won’t occur again for another 18.
Source: TIME, Independent
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