Best times in Australia to see November’s full moon
The biggest and brightest moon of the year will rise on Wednesday evening, and the cosmic spectacle will rely on the interplay between celestial orbits, physics and the quirks of the human brain.
November’s full moon is called the “Beaver moon” and marks the time of year when the celestial body swings closest to Earth. This is the second event in a series of three consecutive supermoons.
“Some people sometimes think they’re going a little crazy when they look up and see an extraordinarily large full moon,” said Sara Webb, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University of Technology.
Crowds gather at North Bondi’s Ben Buckler Point to watch the Beaver supermoon rise on Wednesday night. Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
“It’s most likely a super full moon and that means it’s a little bit closer to the earth than normal and they’re really spectacular.”
The Moon’s orbit is oval rather than a perfect circle, so there are times when it is closer to us and appears larger. According to NASA, its farthest point from Earth is called apogee, which is 405,500 kilometers away.
At its closest point, at perigee, the moon is about 42,000 kilometers closer (a distance similar to the Earth’s circumference).
When the moon approaches this perigee point by at least 90 percent, it is called a supermoon.
Supermoons come in groups. The Beaver moon is the second in a series of three between the Harvest Supermoon in October and the third and final Supermoon in December.
