A supermoon will be visible in Australian skies as it comes near its closest point to Earth
A supermoon will be visible in Australian skies on Tuesday as the moon comes near its closest point to Earth.
The moon will appear larger and brighter over Australia on Tuesday night as a supermoon graces the skies.
WA astronomer Matthew Wood said the moon’s orbit was an ellipse and not perfectly circular and reached its closest point to Earth at around lunchtime on Tuesday.
Australians can still witness the supermoon when it rises about above the horizon tonight.
“The technical term is called a perigee Syzygy moon,” he said.
The October supermoon is also known as the harvest moon, named by American farmers before artificial light was invented.
Mr Wood said the harvest moon occurs close to the Northern Hemisphere’s Autumn equinox when farmers would labour under the light of the moon to gather their crops.
He said Tuesday’s moon would be about 361,396km away from Earth.
“It is one of those things, an absolutely amazing astronomical free event,” he said.
“It is how I got into space and astronomy when my dad took me outside and we watched space shuttle Columbia fly over.
“It is one of those things that people can take the kids out and all of a sudden their kids are massively into space and it’s the beginning a long journey and hobby.”
The astronomer recommended the best time to photograph the supermoon was when it rose above the horizon.
“You get that golden colour because it’s low on the horizon, so there’s a bit of rayleigh scattering, which makes it golden,” he said.
“It’s actually an optical illusion that the that the moon looks bigger on the horizon than when it is straight above us.
“It’s because your eye has something other than the blue sky to measure it against.”
Originally published as A supermoon will be visible in Australian skies as it comes near its closest point to Earth
