Vancouver's full moon on Saturday morning will be a 'Supermoon'

Dec 19 2017, 7:15 pm

Clear night skies will allow residents across Metro Vancouver to view Saturday early-morning’s rare full moon or ‘Supermoon’.

The moon will be full tomorrow morning (Saturday, July 12) at 4:25 a.m., when temperatures by the water will slightly dip to a still-warm 17°C.

It will happen just above the horizon, at an low altitude of 9° in the southwest, approximately one hour before sunrise at 5:20 a.m. The moon sets shortly after at 5:55 a.m.

Tonight’s full moon event will be 14 per cent larger and 30 per cent brighter than the usual full moons. It could be the brightest and largest full moon you have seen yet.

The moon will be at its ‘Perigee’ stage, a term that indicates when the moon will be at its closest point in its elliptical orbit around Earth. This stage occurs approximately every 13 months.

Perigee events mean the moon could be as close as 356,500 kilometres away from Earth, while a moon in the ‘Apogee’ stage indicates the moon is at its farthest point away from the planet – as far away as 406,500 kilometres.

The two other Supermoons that will take place this summer are on August 10 and September 8.

apogee perigee full moon nasa
Image: NASA

perigee apogee moon diagram nasa
Image: NASA

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Featured Image: Katy Yu via Flickr

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