It’s an exciting time for skywatchers right now, as not only is there the Leonid meter shower to look forward to, but there’s also the last supermoon of the year appearing tomorrow, November 15. Known as the Beaver Moon, the moon will appear bigger and brighter than usual, so it’s worth heading out and looking up for a chance to marvel at the beauty of the night sky.
A supermoon occurs when the moon is at its closest point to Earth. Although we tend to think of the moon’s orbit as a perfect circle, it is in fact slightly elliptical, so sometimes the moon is further away and sometimes, like tomorrow, it is much closer. There is a difference of 27,000 miles from the moon’s most distant point (called its apogee, with an average of 253,000 miles from Earth) to its nearest point (called the perigee, with an average of 226,00 miles from Earth), and this difference is enough to make the moon appear significantly larger or smaller than usual.
As well as being at its closest point to Earth, a moon must also be full to be a supermoon, and that will occur starting Friday. The combination of being a full moon and being at its perigee means the moon will appear 14% bigger and 30% brighter than when its at its smallest and dimmest during an apogee. And if you’re wondering what this point is called, the opposite of a supermoon, it’s the charmingly named micromoon.
Though supermoons are a regular feature of the moon’s orbit, this will be the last one for 2024. “The moon’s orbit takes it around the Earth about once every 27-and-one-third days,” said NASA research scientist Dennis Gallagher in a statement. “That time of closest approach to Earth, or perigee, happens three or four times each year due to the motions of Earth and the moon around the sun.”
The November full moon is known as the Beaver Moon, and this name is thought to come from Native American folklore as this is the time of year when beavers are busy building up their dams and storing food for the winter. You’ll also see it referred to as a Frost Moon or Snow Moon, as this is the time of year that winter weather arrives in full force in North America.
The Beaver Moon officially becomes full at 4:28 p.m. ET on November 15, but if you’d like to observe it, then your best bet is to wait for twilight and the look to the east, where the moon rises, as it will look most impressive when over the horizon.
