Supermoon is a name coined by an astrologer, Richard Nolle, over 30 years ago. It is used to describe a full moon closely coinciding with perigee 鈥� the moon鈥檚 closest point to Earth in its orbit. At this point the moon appears about 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than usual.
Alfia Nesternko, the Head of Atomic Physics and Spectroscopy laboratory and Vega observatory of the Physics Department at NSU, explains, 鈥淭he greatest difference between the visible moon size of a supermoon and that of an ordinary full moon can be as large as 16 percent. On July 12 it was about 14 percent, which makes it quite a big difference.
The supermoon is caused by the moon traveling closer to Earth than usual on its elliptical orbit. The moon orbit can be considered circular only roughly. In fact, it is an ellipse with Earth as one of its focuses.
The important points of the moon orbit are the perigee, which is the closest to Earth, and the apogee, the one farthest away. While the moon moving through its perigee, the difference between the moon and Earth centers is equal to 363,260 km. At this point we see the moon at its largest with 32' 52" in diameter. This is what is called a supermoon.鈥�
In the photo the supermoon is on the left while the moon in apogee, 405,500 km far away form the Earth, is on the right.
Alfia Nesterenko advises to use color filters to watch the supermoon. 鈥淭hey help to see the smallest details on the moon surface including the shapes of the seas, shadows of the mountains and craters. Binoculars or small telescopes are of special help to see the whole view.鈥�
Alfia added that NSU observatory is going to make observations of the full lunar eclipse on 8 October, 2014. The observations can be followed at and the site of the Mayor鈥檚 office of Novosibirsk.
Some recommendations on how to observe the moon and moon explosions can be found soon at . Note: The full moons of August and September will also be supermoons, by Nolle鈥檚 definition. Thus, the next supermoons 鈥� aka perigee full moons 鈥� in 2014 are: full moon of August 10 and full moon of September 9. The full moon on August 10, 2014, will present the closest supermoon of the year (356,896 kilometers or 221,765 miles).
