Biggest and Brightest supermoon, this Sunday

Experts have confirmed that the year’s biggest and brightest supermoon will be appearing on Sunday, August 10th. Well, technically speaking there is only one supermoon every year. A supermoon appears in the event of the moon being closest to the Earth. Other “supermoons” this year like the one on July 12th and another one coming up on September 9th weren’t genuinely supermoons since the Moon will be closest to our planet on August 10th. So Sunday’s supermoon will be quite special.

Before you get too imaginative about the size, Shawn Domagal-Goldman, research space scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland points out that the size difference in the dimmest and brightest full moon is only about 10%. So there won’t be a substantial difference between the other supermoons and this one.

”Its going to look biggest and brightest to us when it’s next to the horizon.” said Domagal-Goldman. He encouraged people to take the time out and view the greatness of the our planet’s companion this Sunday. He suggested viewing the Moon when the sky is clear, to get the clear skies, he recommended going out at Moon rise when the sky is relatively clear. He pointed out another interesting fact which many people may have noticed but never really understood the reason for. The Moon appears its biggest and brightest when its right next to the horizon and we can see it right next to known objects like trees. This vast difference in size between Earthly objects and our celestial companion is what makes it look the most majestic to our perception. While the moon will get the closest to Earth on Sunday, it should appear more or less full on Friday and Saturday. Geoff Chester, an astronomer at the US Naval Observatory is optimistic towards the possibility that the supermoon craze may spark an interest in astronomy amongst the masses.

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Karen Jackson

Karen Jackson has always been passionate about technology. All the way through high-school she immersed herself in computers and web-design. Her ambitious nature helped her become a pro in Adobe Photoshop only by watching online videos and working with the program herself. This is also the program that she mostly uses in the creation of websites at her work-place. Technological innovation and gadgets that push the boundaries of what we are comfortable with have always fascinated her, so expect to see some weird gadget reviews coming from her.