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​Monday Night Will See ‘The Biggest Moon In Living Memory’

​Monday Night Will See ‘The Biggest Moon In Living Memory’

Get looking at the sky.

James Dawson

James Dawson

The moon is orbiting as close to Earth as it has done for almost 70 years tonight, with Monday expected to be the best evening for capturing a rare close-up of our sole permanent natural satellite.

Photographers have already been taking brilliant pictures of the biggest supermoon for generations, with some of them published here.

Astrologer Richard Nolle first came up with the term 'supermoon', defining it as "a new or full moon which occurs with the moon at or near (within 90 percent of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit," according to earthsky.org.

NASA's explanation of what a supermoon is. Credit: NASA

The moon orbits the Earth in an oval shape, meaning it comes closer to us some times more than other. So over the next couple of nights the moon will appear 30 percent brighter and 14 percent bigger.

A Met Office spokesman told The Daily Mail that the best time to observe it would be on Monday night, but large areas of the UK may have their views spoiled by cloud.

The moon will become full at 13:52 GMT on Monday. The best time to view it in the UK will be when the sun is setting in the late afternoon; it will seem bigger the closer to the horizon it is.

Robin Scagell, vice-president of the Society for Popular Astronomy, told the Telegraph: "It will be above rooftops and trees and chimneys and always appears bigger that way because you're comparing it to foreground objects.

"I'm always pleased for people to get their binoculars out and look up at the craters and the seas."

They're fairly frequent, with six taking place in 2016, but the size of November's supermoon will be a once-in-a-generation sight.

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Moon