Tonight is the first supermoon of 2018. But if you can’t get outside and see a clear view of it, or if it’s too cloudy where you are to see this beautiful sight, then you can watch it on the live stream above. The video to watch the beautiful supermoon is provided by Slooh.com. The video starts tonight, January 1, at around 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. Eastern. This is the biggest full moon of 2018.
Tonight’s supermoon will reach its fullest phase at 9:24 p.m. Eastern (8:24 p.m. Central). But the best time to see it are the hours just after sunset, when it’s first rising into the sky, at about 4:39 p.m. Eastern. You can also see it when it’s setting Tuesday morning, just before sunrise, at about 7:20 a.m. Eastern.
The best time to see the supermoon is just after the moon rises (5:15 p.m. Eastern) and right before the sun rises in your area. If you want to know when your local “moonrise” time is, check here and put your city in the search bar. Peak viewing times for the rising of the moon are 5:04 p.m. in San Francisco, 4:34 p.m. in New York City, 6:06 p.m. in Honolulu, and 4:15 p.m. in Anchorage, Alaska. Here’s another supermoon live stream you can view below, provided by Virtual Telescope. This one showed the supermoon rising over Rome. It’s already aired:
The largest recent supermoon occurred in last year. It was the closest approach to Earth since 1948. The moon won’t come that close to Earth again until November 24, 2034.
Tonight’s supermoon is the second of a supermoon trilogy. The next supermoon will be on January 31. The supermoon on January 31 is also known as the Blue Moon since it’s the second full moon of January. This will also occur during a total lunar eclipse which also takes place on January 31, 2018.
The supermoon occurs in about one in ever 14 moons. It looks slightly larger and slightly brighter, and definitely catches the eye. In fact, sometimes the difference between a normal full moon and a supermoon are nearly indistinguishable. But experts agree that the best time to view the moon is right as it is over the horizon, because that’s when it appears the largest. In some situations, the supermoon can appear up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than a normal full moon. Today’s moon is expected to be 16 percent brighter and 7 percent larger than normal.
The supermoon occurs when a full moon happens at the same time as the perigee of the moon (the point when the moon is closest to the Earth in its orbit.) This shorter distance makes the moon appear larger in the sky. But this moon won’t appear as bright as last November’s supermoon, which was the closest the moon had been to the Earth in 68 years. If you want the best view of the moon, get as far away from ambient light as possible. To take a photo, fit your camera with a telephoto lens and lengthen the shutter time and increase the sensitivity (ISO) to compensate for the lower nighttime light.