Supermoon glastonbury tor11/12/2022 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Supermoons occur when full moons occur at the same time as perigee. 'As this means that the moon is a little closer to us, it appears slightly bigger in the sky,' she said.Īlthough the pink supermoon peaked last night, it will be visibly full each night until sunrise on Wednesday, April 28, when it will enter the waning gibbous phase (when the sunlit part of the moon's surface decreases).Ī full moon occurs once in each lunar cycle, which lasts 29.5 days, but not every full moon is a supermoon. Rather, most full moons occur when the moon is further away from the Earth, making it seem dimmer and not quite as big as it does during a supermoon.Īnna Ross, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, said the average distance between the Earth and the moon is 238,171 miles.īut the moon reached its closest point on Tuesday morning, when it was 222,065 miles away from the Earth. Supermoons are relatively rare because the moon's orbital path around the Earth is elliptical instead of circular, meaning that full moons rarely occur when the moon is also at its perigee. 'Pink Moon' is the common name for April's full moon because it traditionally heralds the appearance of Phlox subulata or moss pink – one of spring's first flowers. Nicknames that are used to describe the supermoons were historically used to track the seasons and therefore are closely related to nature. This means a supermoon can appear as much as 14 per cent larger and 30 per cent brighter than a normal full moon, depending on the time of year. Photographers have captured some stunning images of the 'Pink Supermoon', which illuminated global skies throughout the night on Tuesday.Īpril's Pink Supermoon peaked at 04:31 BST on Tuesday (April 27), dazzling the night's sky with a gentle shade of gold before it set in the west.Įager photographers snapped stunning photos of the lunar phenomenon from around the world, with images coming in from New York, Macedonia and across the UK to name but a few places.Ī supermoon occurs when a full moon nearly coincides with perigee – the point in the orbit of the moon at which it is nearest to the Earth. ![]()
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