Supermoon viewing today

The biggest ‘supermoon’ in 68 years, will be visible tomorrow night, with those in Asia being best placed to see it. The supermoon is billed to be the biggest so far of the 21st century.

Supermoons generally appear to be 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons. The last sighting of a supermoon was in 1948 and the next would occur on November 25, 2034, the Sri Lanka Planetarium said.

A supermoon is technically known as ‘perigee full moon’ – a phenomenon that occurs when a full moon coincides with the moon being the closest it gets to Earth on its orbit. This year has three such supermoons; on October 16, November 14 and December 14. Tomorrow’s event will be the biggest of these supermoons.

The normal distance between the Earth and the moon is about 384,400 kilometers. This distance will reduce to about 356,509 kilometres during the supermoon event tomorrow.

Assistant Director of the Sri Lanka Planetarium, Priyanka Koralagama said that provided the skies are clear, those in Sri Lanka would be able to see the supermoon at its biggest and brightest point at about 7.30 p.m. today.