It will be there tonight “Sturgeon” supermoon, the first in August and the second of the four scheduled for 2023: it’s Super because it’s a full Moon that is at the same time in the point of its orbit closest to the Earth, a combination that makes it appear bigger and brighter. Of the ‘sturgeon’ because that’s how the Native Americans indicated it at this time of year. To have 2 Supermoons again in just one month, the next one will be on the night between 30 and 31 August, we will have to wait for 2037, and from 20:40 it will also be possible to follow it on the web with live broadcast from Virtual Telescope.
“Tonight’s will be the second Supermoon of the year in a 2023 proposes 4 but the curious thing is that if it occurs today there is plenty of time for another full moon this month, the so-called Blue Moon as they call it the Anglo-Saxons, another Super Moon which will even be the biggest of the year,” he told ANSA Gianluca Masiresponsible of Virtual Telescope Project and who will conduct the direct observation.
What makes this full Moon Super will be the fact that it will appear about 7% larger and a little brighter than average, this because it will be full at 20:33, about 11 hours before its passage to perigee, or at the minimum distance from the Earth , 357,309 km from us.
«A combination of phenomena – added Masi – which is popularly referred to as the Supermoon, a term which has no scientific value, but which has a symbolic value and adds fascination to an astronomical phenomenon that is always beautiful to admire as well as a precious opportunity to invite people to recover, in general, awareness of the landscape of the sky among the general public also from the city, notoriously unfavorable to the vision of the stars due to light pollution”. To add elements of curiosity is also the denomination ‘of the sturgeon’, also a non-scientific term, which takes up the denomination that some American populations gave to the full moon that fell on the days when an abundance of sturgeons is observed in the Great Lakes.