Biggest ‘supermoon’ in almost 70 years captivates skygazers worldwide

Tonight’s supermoon will be the largest and brightest full moon for almost 70 years but it might be hidden by clouds in many parts of the UK. But scientists say the moon was actually only 41 miles closer to the earth than it was earlier this year in March.

However, supermoon is rarely used within the scientific community as many researchers prefer to use perigee full moon or perigee new moon.

Above two phenomena add up and gave us a very large and bright Supermoon and as everything was relatively close, it also lead to higher than normal tidal effects too.

This image by Bill Hood compares the size of the supermoon with the other full moons from 2016.

The moon has never been this bigger and brighter in last seven decades than of last Monday.

Spectators lined up in France, Israel and Germany to watch the moon rise behind famous monuments like the Eiffel Tower, Dormition Abbey, and the Brandenburg Gate.

Supermoon is a term used to describe a full moon at its perigee, or closest point to Earth during the lunar orbit. It won’t venture as near again until 2034.

The supermoon occurred on Monday and the next one will not occur until November 25, 2034.

How it works, is that the moon’s orbit around Earth is slightly elliptical so sometimes it is closer and sometimes it’s farther away. It came just under 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) closer than during the November 14 perigee. In 2007, Sussex Police announced that they would put extra officers on patrol on nights when the moon was full, following research that showed “a correlation between violent incidents and full moons.”.

Besides looking spectacular, the supermoon will give tides, which are affected by the gravity of the moon and sun, a small boost.

There are many other classifications of moons including harvest, black, blue, blood and strawberry moons.

So if you’ve never really looked at the moon-I mean really looked at it-make this your excuse to go outside and look up.