Supermoon to Fill Our Sky This Weekend


The Moon has fascinated mankind down through the ages, firing up our imaginations, dreams and delighting curious sky watchers and amateur astronomers alike with it’s phases and celestial beauty. This weekend on Saturday May 5th at 11:34 pm (EST.) the Moon will be truly be a sight to behold as a rare event happens, a Supermoon.

A Supermoon occurs when the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit (or perigee) during a full moon with the Earth, Moon and Sun all in a line. These perfectly timed conditions can conjure up some truly magical looking effects with NASA estimating that the Supermoon will appear as much as 14% bigger and roughly 30% brighter than other full Moons of 2012.

As long as the weekend weather holds, the sight of the Supermoon over the Great Sacandaga Lake and the surrounding Adirondacks should be breathtaking! Don’t worry, although a Supermoon has been rumored to cause large tidal disturbances and has been blamed for natural disasters, there is no scientific evidence to support this claim. So, with out reservation, go ahead an step out onto your deck, dock or front porch this weekend, look up and bask in some Moon-light, you won’t regret it.

Apogee and Perigee of Moon

*Earth, Moon, and orbit not to scale.

Sources: Wikipedia and NASA. Imagery: Wikimedia.