Moon-chasers and amateur astronomers alike will be gazing skywards this evening, with the first super moon of 2019. Known as the ‘super snow moon’, it will illuminate the night sky brighter than at any other time, as reported in the Dagblad van het Noorden.
The distance between the moon and the earth changes throughout the year, due to its elliptical orbit around the earth. Every 29 days the moon gets to its closest distance from the earth, and when this coincides with a full moon it is referred to as a ‘super moon’. The Netherlands only has a few visible super moons each year- where the celestial body seems larger and brighter than a usual full moon.
The moon will be closest to the earth on Tuesday evening: a little after 8PM it will be only 356,762km from the earth, its shortest distance in 2019. On average, the moon is about 384,000km from the earth.
The second full moon of the year is called a ‘snow moon’, with NASA attributing this title to a native US tribe. Therefore, the moon will be known as a ‘super snow moon’.
