Super moon tomorrow, Posted 05 May 2012 - 12:49 AM Posted 05 May
2012 - 02:02 AM This Saturday night, the largest full moon of
the year will appear. This week’s full Moon, which takes place
on May 5, will be a “SuperMoon,” and should appear quite a bit
larger and brighter than a normal full Moon. Last year, the
March SuperMoon got a lot of media attention because it was the
largest full Moon in nearly 20 years. This week’s SuperMoon will
not be quite as extreme as last year’s, but will come close.
SuperMoons are caused by the shape of the Moon’s orbit, which is
not a perfect circle, but an ellipse, or oval, shape. The Moon
orbits the Earth once each month, and each month reaches a point
farthest from the Earth, called apogee, and closest to the
Earth, called perigee. A SuperMoon occurs when the Moon is at
least 90% of the way to its perigee position at the same time it
is full or new. An extreme SuperMoon is when a full or new Moon
happens at the same time the Moon is close to 100% perigee.
May’s full Moon wi