If you look up in the sky tonight you’ll see an unusually large moon. The Supermoon will be 221,802 miles away from earth tonight and will appear about 14% larger than normal.
The moon will be closest to earth at 11:35 tonight. The moon will be at its fullest at about the same time, creating a spectacle known as a Supermoon.
ABC reports that the moon doesn’t orbit the earth in a perfect circle, instead, the moon’s distance from the earth varies. Two weeks from now when the moon as at the opposite end of its orbit it will be about 252,000 miles away.
Tony Phillips, an astronomer with NASA, said:
“The full Moon has a reputation for trouble. It raises high tides, it makes dogs howl, it wakes you up in the middle of the night with beams of moonlight stealing through drapes. If a moonbeam wakes you up on the night of May 5th, you might want to get out of bed and take a look.”
Phillips said that beside its unusual appearance, there isn’t anything particularly super about tonight’s moon.
The Supermoon isn’t the only spectacular spectacle in the sky tonight. The Eta Aquarid meteor shower will also by vying for sky watchers tonight. The Supermoon may make it difficult to see the meteor shower, however.
