At 5 a.m. on Wednesday, there will be a ceremony. The moon will arrive at its closest point to the Earth in 22 years.
After nine hours and 38 minutes the moon will be full. For a day or so before and after the full moon, the shaded strip is so narrow that it is hard to see the full moon.
A waning gibbous moon is already many hours past its stage of full illumination when the moon shines down on your neighborhood.
What is a super moon and when do it occur?
Still, newspapers, radio and TV stations will almost certainly urge the public to step outside that night and witness the "rare" spectacle of the biggest and bright full moon of this year.
How did it get so popular?
Richard Nolle gave us the terminology for the super moon. He first used it in a 1979 edition of Dell Horoscope, which at the time was called the world's leading astrology magazine.
According to Nolle's definition, Wednesday's full moon will be labeled as "super"
On March 11, 2011, when the Tohoku Earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Honshu on the Japan Trench, it suddenly got a lot of attention. Nolle claimed that super moons can cause physical stress.
The term "super moon" gained traction in the media.
A NASA scientist explains the science behind the super moon.
The idea that the Japan earthquake could have been caused by the close proximity of a full moon is ridiculous. There is a connection between earthquakes and the moon.
On February 9, 1971, the San Fernando Earthquake and a total eclipse occurred. The California earthquake may have been caused by the Eclipse.
The answer was a resounding no.
Every year, The Old Farmer's Almanac suggests that earthquakes can be predicted based on how far north or south the moon appears. If there was a correlation, wouldn't seismologists be issuing advisories every time a full moon aligned with perigee, when a total lunar eclipse was due, or when the moon rides high above the equator?
There is no proof for any such connections.
People are whipped into a frenzy when they hear about the upcoming super moon. There are two things that are always disclosed, one of which is that this full moon will be 30% brighter than normal.
Supermoons are larger and brighter than full moons at their average distance from Earth, but not as much as full moons at their farthest distance from Earth. Micromoons are also referred to as minimoons.
The sensationalism attached to such claims results in a lot of disappointment among the people who are looking up.
A boost of 30% in the moon'silluminance equates to an increase in brightness of 0.28-magnitude. A friend of mine told me a long time ago that she was expecting a super moon to be brighter. It was going to be like turning the moon's brightness up a notch if she saw something like a 3-way light bulb.
An increase of 0.28-magnitude is barely noticeable to the eye.
What about the moon's size? The variation of the moon's distance is not readily apparent to most observers. Unless you catch it when it's rising or setting, the moon won't look much different than any other moon.
Thanks to the power of suggestion, more than a few people will insist that the moon is larger than they think. We could draw a parallel to the folktale "The Emperor's New Clothes," in that most people don't see a difference between a full moon and a super moon. They insist that they are seeing something unusual.
The coincidence of this week's full moon with perigee will cause a large range of high and low ocean tides. Any storm at sea will cause flooding.
The word spring is derived from the German word springen, meaning to "spring up," and not from the spring season. Spring tides happen when the moon is full. The moon and sun form a line with the Earth at certain times of the year. The sun exerts less power than the moon.
There can be more than one super moon in a year if the moon's distance from Earth is equal or greater than 90 percent.
In some years there are three supermoons, in other years there are four, and in a few years there can be as many as five.
If there are a lot of supermoons in a single year, the general public may become blasé, and that may happen in the future.
Don't worry, if the moon is obscured by clouds, you can still see it. Next month, there will be a super moon.
The number of full moons should be limited to those closest to perigee.
It's possible to only brand a full moon as "super" when it's close to Earth. Supermoons occur on an average of once every four years. There would be no super moon in 2022.
We might apply the term "super" only to those full moons that approach Earth within a certain distance. Espenak considers these to be the Ultimate Full Moon perigees. There will be only four such cases in the 21st century, with the first coming in 2034.
Any publicity that gets people to look up at the night sky is a positive thing.
Don't be deceived by overblown hype.
There is an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for a number of publications. We encourage you to follow us on social networking sites.
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