The moon’s orbit and its phases will coincide this weekend to make the largest full moon seen from Earth this year.
A so-called “supermoon” will light up the sky this Saturday night into Sunday morning, June 22–23.
A supermoon occurs when a full moon is at its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, making the fully illuminated disk appear larger than usual.
Supermoons occur several times throughout the year, but this supermoon is perhaps the most super of 2013. The moment the moon will be at its fullest, at 6:32 a.m. CDT Sunday, and the moment when it comes closest to Earth will occur within a half hour of each other. And it’s the closest the moon will get to Earth in all of 2013. The next super-supermoon won’t come until August of 2014.
“Most people won’t notice it,” said Steven Spangler, a professor of astronomy at the University of Iowa. “It’s not like it covers half the sky. But if someone is careful about watching the moon, they might notice it.”
The moon will also appear in one of the lowest parts of the sky all year, Spangler said.
“Just go out and take a look and know this,” he suggests. “A lot of things in astronomy is just needing to know about it.”
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