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Photo via Grant Shaffer ...
It's the nearest supermoon in almost 70 years — and we won't see another like it until 2034.
"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," NASA says.
In the U.S., we'll get three chances to see the moon at its brightest and biggest, from around sunset Sunday to Monday's predawn and sunset. On both days, the moon will rise around sunset.
Sky-watchers are gearing up for a super-sized moon that will grace evening skies this Sunday, October 16. The so-called hunter’s supermoon kicks off a lunar triple play happening over the next three months.
This month’s full moon is known in North America as the hunter’s moon. That’s because in other months, the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, while the October moon rises just 30 minutes later. That offers more light overall during a 24-hour day, which came in handy for traditional hunters. [Ed note: Does this make it paleo?]
This month, the moon officially reaches its full phase at 12:23 a.m. ET (4:23 UT) on October 16, which means that the lunar disk will appear nearly equally full on the nights of both October 15 and 16.
@evgrieve obviously fake. #fakemoonlanding #fuckthefullmoon #bullshit pic.twitter.com/W7hb4m6EWs
— EdenBrower (@edenbrower) October 16, 2016
"The orange colour of a moon near the horizon is a true physical effect. It stems from the fact that - when you look toward the horizon - you are looking through a greater thickness of Earth’s atmosphere than when you gaze up and overhead.
The atmosphere scatters blue light - that’s why the sky looks blue. The greater thickness of atmosphere in the direction of a horizon scatters blue light most effectively, but it lets red light pass through to your eyes. So a full moon near the horizon — any full moon near the horizon — takes on a yellow or orange or reddish hue."
A rare astronomical phenomenon Sunday night will produce a moon that will appear slightly bigger than usual and have a reddish hue, an event known as a super blood moon.
It’s a combination of curiosities that hasn’t happened since 1982... A so-called supermoon, which occurs when the moon is closest to earth in its orbit, will coincide with a lunar eclipse, leaving the moon in Earth’s shadow. Individually, the two phenomena are not uncommon, but they do not align often.
If it's clear I will set up on the corner of East 3rd Street and 2nd Avenue at 8 pm to show Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, presently high in the constellation Cancer.
Jupiter was in Leo last fall, has been shifting retrograde (clockwise) toward Cancer all winter, and in a few weeks will turn and move back (counter-clockwise) toward Leo. This is due to the relative positions of Earth as an inner planet versus Jupiter as an outer planet.
One of Jupiter's largest moons, Europa, will disappear behind the planet at 8:30 pm, and re-emerge from the other side, at around 11:30. Although Ganymede and Callisto are both larger than our moon, Europa and Io are a little smaller.
February’s full moon is aptly named the Full Snow Moon as snowfall can be heavy this month.
The Full Moon celebrates Jupiter’s coming opposition by accompanying the bright planet in a beautiful conjunction tonight.
Furnerius, Petavius, Vendelinus, and Langrenus were so jagged last night on the rim of the 2nd day old crescent moon that they looked like scabs about to be broken off. Tonight there will be a fascinating arrangement as Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Mars and the Moon all line up in the southwest at sunset.
I will set up on the corner of 2nd Avenue and East 3rd Street as usual, at about 5 p.m., but we don't have a really clear perspective toward the southwest. People may want to check out other locations.