TORONTO -- Stargazers, night owls and well, anyone who glances at the sky over the next few days, will be treated to the sight of a super moon.
It will appear relatively large in the sky Sunday night, but won’t technically be a full moon until Monday during mid-day.
The moon will be its fullest at 2:30 A.M. on Tuesday, according to NASA, meaning that a casual viewer will probably get the best look at it Monday night.
March’s full moon can be called many names. Crow Moon, Worm Moon, Crust Moon and Sap Moon are all drawn from Indigenous traditions, while Europeans historically called this the Lenten Moon.
A super moon, according to NASA, is a nickname that refers to a full or new moon that is much closer to the Earth than it is during the rest of the year. The term was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979.
Specifically, a super moon is within 90 per cent of “perigee,” a term for when the moon is at the point in its orbit when it is as close to Earth as it can get. This means that the moon appears slightly bigger and brighter in the sky.
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, a super moon is approximately 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter than a “micro moon” -- a full moon that is at the point in its orbit when it is farthest away from the Earth.
Sunday’s super moon is part of a series of back-to-back super moons. April’s full moon is set to be slightly closer to the Earth than March’s, by about 0.1 per cent.
Next month’s super moon will show its face on April 7. May is predicted to also have a super moon.
