Supermoon 2013 — Super Moon On June 22 And June 23, Saturday And Sunday Night

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The Supermoon is almost here — on Saturday June 22 and Sunday June 23 2013 the Moon will appear larger in the night’s sky that at any other point until August 2014. The Super Moon will appear about 14% larger and 30% brighter than a more typical Full Moon does.

The reason for the larger appearance is due to the Moon reaching its perigee — the portion of its orbit where it gets closer to the Earth than at any other time. At perigee on the 23rd the Moon will be somewhere around 221,824 miles away from the Earth, as opposed to the around 252,581 or so miles away that it is at its farthest distance — apogee.

This Supermoon will be reaching its perigree right at 7:32 am EDT (4:32 am PDT) on June 23 2013 — because of the early morning timing, both the night of June 22 and the night of June 23 will be equally good times to see it.

For those worried about the Supermoon causing earthquakes or volcanic eruptions — as we reported earlier:

With regards to the common rumors that tend to accompany upcoming Supermoons — while they certainly do create uncommonly strong tides, the tides are nothing extreme. What you can expect to see are tides that are a couple of inches higher and lower than those seen during regular Full Moons. With regards to the Supermoon causing earthquakes or volcanic eruptions — the jury is still out but there is no evidence that they do, Supermoons are a common occurrence and very rarely match up with irregularly strong earthquakes or eruptions.

Some interesting things to take note of:

- The Moon currently orbits at a distance of between 225,623 and 252,088 miles away— but it was once considerably closer to the Earth, and has been slowly moving away from the Earth. Imagine what a Full Moon would look if it was “only” 100,000 miles away…

- Currently, the Moon is moving away from the Earth at a rate of about 1.5 inches a year.

- “As a result of the Moon moving away from the Earth, the two celestial bodies are ever so slightly slowing one another down. The length of a day is currently growing by about 1/500th of a second every century.”

Enjoy the show.

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