Supermoon appears for the first time in 2015

THE first supermoon of 2015 has appeared in our night sky, with one stargazer noticing something strange.

MILLIONS of stargazers around the world have captured the year’s first celestial phenomenon, the supermoon, in stunning detail.

But one savvy stargazer caught something else as well. In a creepy coincidence, “green energy” was seen bouncing off the moon in the United States.

Vid I took of tonight's #SuperMoon 🌝 Watched vid & noticed a green energy on right side. As Spock says, Fascinating. pic.twitter.com/on3kUKFaNY

— Jennie Jennie (@JennieJennie17) August 30, 2015

Closer to home, Australia’s east coast got their first taste of the supermoon just after the moon rose around 7pm AEST, while the rest of the country was forced to wait until 1am on Monday morning.

My attempt at photographing the super moon #Supermoon #moon #space #sky #Australia #Perth pic.twitter.com/ZZUxAlfLxk

— aussie mixer (@bell1132) August 30, 2015

Scientists highlighted the Tycho crater, featured in the photo below, as a key spectacle stargazers could spot. The Tycho spot with its system of rays was caused by an asteroid impact millions of years ago.

Can you spot the Tycho crater with its rays? Picture: Diimex

The full moon is called a supermoon due to it appearing between 12 and 14 per cent larger and shining around 25-30 times brighter than normal. This is due to the moon’s position being slightly closer to Earth than normal.

The most important thing for astronomers was the distance between the moon and Earth, which was just 360,000km. When the moon gets this close, it has a strong effect on the Earth’s ocean tides.

Here's tonight's #Supermoon from #Adelaide. Taken with a Meade ETX-90 and a Canon 550D pic.twitter.com/jn0COVPGE6

— Emmanuel Photakis (@emmanuelpho) August 30, 2015

A supermoon occurs when two space events line up at once. The first is a full moon, while the other is a perigee, i.e. the moment a celestial body, whether it be a moon, planet or a comet, reaches its closest point to Earth.

While the moon reaches its perigee once every 27 days, it rarely occurs during a full moon, which is why a supermoon is so unusual.

#mydayinLA ends w the #SuperMoon rising over & planes crossing it over Whittier tonight! @latimesphotos @mmaltaisLA pic.twitter.com/RjgglZkpQ8

— Raul Roa (@raulroa) August 30, 2015

According to Space.com, we only see around three to four supermoons a year, with all of them appearing at different sizes and levels of brightness. The next one is only a month away, on September 29.