Monday 31st July to Sunday 6th August 2023
On the evening of Tuesday 1st August, we have a Full Moon. At 10pm, our celestial neighbour will have just risen above the horizon towards the south east.
Nothing out there in space is a perfect circle and the Moon's orbit around us every 27 days is slightly elliptical or "egg shaped". The point where the Moon gets closest to us is known as "Perigee" and at that time it is about 225,000 miles away. The opposite point, when the Moon is furthest from us is called "Apogee" and then the Moon is about 251,000 miles from us.
The Full Moon on 1st happens to occur very close to perigee which means that it will appear to be 14% larger and 25% brighter than a Full Moon at apogee. This is referred to as being a "Supermoon". August is also unusual in that there will be two full moons in the same month, with another on 31st August.
Now I was never that good at maths, but if the Moon takes 27 days to orbit around us, why is it a few days longer than that between the full moons?
While the Moon has been orbiting around us, we have been travelling in our orbit around the Sun, so all the angles will have changed and the Moon will need to travel a bit further before the sunlight falling on it fully illuminates the near side again.
Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2023
www.starsoversomerset.com
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