Supermoon to be observed on August 30-31

A rare astronomical phenomenon - the Supermoon – will be observed on the night of August 30-31, Report informs referring to the Astrophysics Department of the Physics Faculty of the Baku State University.

At this time the Moon will be closest to the Earth.

A supermoon occurs because the moon orbits the Earth in an ellipse. At a certain moment, it is at the point closest to the Earth, which is called perigee. At this point, the Moon looks 14% larger and 30% brighter than usual.

The moon will be at its closest point to the Earth on August 30 at 19:52 Baku time, and on August 31 at 05:37 it will enter the phase of the full moon.

The interval between these events will be 9 hours 45 minutes. The distance to the Moon at perigee is 357,181 km. Therefore, the Supermoon, which will be observed on August 31, 2023, can be called the largest Supermoon of the year.