2023-09-24 07:26:59
A supermoon rises behind an office building in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Charlie Riedel/AP
The last supermoon of the year will be visible next Friday, September 29th.
A supermoon can be up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than usual.
The best time to see it is when the moon rises: in Germany that is around 7 p.m.
Get ready, next Friday — September 29th — is the last supermoon of 2023. It’s also this year’s Harvest Moon, meaning the full moon that occurs closest to the first day of fall.
A supermoon is a type of full moon that is up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than the faintest moon of the year. This is because it is at its closest point to Earth, perigee, according to NASA.
Even though next Friday’s supermoon won’t be the biggest of the year – that award went to August’s blue supermoon – it will still be larger than average and worth seeing.
“The difference between this full moon and August’s supermoon is only 4,370 kilometers, making it very close to the 14 percent/30 percent value for the largest full moon of the year,” said Noah Petro, a project scientist for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter , in an email to Business Insider.
Do harvest moons look bigger?
“Harvest moons occur at this time of year and are so called because a nearly full moon appears at sunset for several days,” Patrick Hartigan, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University, told Business Insider. The light allowed farmers harvesting crops in the northern hemisphere to continue working after sunset.
Typically the moon rises 50 minutes later than the night before. Around the Harvest Moon, this delay decreases by several minutes, depending on your location. “You get the impression that the full moon is on the horizon right after sunset for several days in a row,” he added.
“There is also an optical illusion that the moon appears larger when it is near the horizon,” says Hartigan. “Together with the small supermoon effect, this will all lead to a beautiful Harvest Moon season in 2023.”
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Why does a harvest moon look red or orange?
While this supermoon won’t be quite as close or bright as the one in August, it may appear deep yellow, orange or red, especially when it first appears above the horizon.
“The moon only appears to change color when it rises or sets above the horizon or during a lunar eclipse,” said NASA’s Noah Petro. This is also why we have red sunrises and sunsets. “The Earth’s atmosphere scatters light. The exception is red and orange colors,” he said. Atmospheric conditions such as clouds, smoke or dust can change the color of the moon and its brightness.
The best time to see the supermoon is at moonrise
A full moon, which is also a harvest moon, rises behind storm clouds near Encinitas, California, in September 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake
Moonrise is the best time to witness the enormous size of a supermoon. When the moon is near the horizon, such as during moonrise, foreground objects such as trees and rocks can give a sense of scale.
Therefore, according to NASA, the moon looks largest at this time. And a supermoon can look particularly impressive. So the best time to see this year’s Harvest Supermoon is right at moonrise. That is in Germany around 7 p.m.
This article was translated and edited from English by Jonas Metzner. You can do the original here read.
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