The Last Supermoon of this year to rise tonight
Image courtesy:The Financial Express
On Thursday, the full moon of August, known as the Sturgeon Moon, will rise tonight at approximately 9:36 p.m. EDT and 6:36 p.m. PDT (Friday at 01:36 GMT), Space.com reports.
According to Fred Espanak (opens in new t eclipse expert and retired NASA astrophysicist, it will occur when the moon is within 90% of its closest approach to Earth making it a “supermoon.”
As per the reports of Space.com, three supermoons have already been witnessed this year in May, June, and July with August’s supermoon wrapping things up with the last supermoon of the year.
Per Espanak’s website, 2023 will also see four consecutive full supermoons, as will 2024. Even 2025 has three in a row.
Unfortunately for meteor shower enthusiasts, the full moon will coincide with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, upstaging and outshining many of the fainter meteors.
According to the statement from NASA, observers in North America can expect to see between 50 and 60 meteors per hour, however, the full moon will reduce the visibility of meteors to about 10-20 per hour at most.
A supermoon will seem as much as 30% brighter and 14% larger than usual and might be very difficult to spot such a difference with the naked eye.
