According to Ursa’s Anne Liljeström, how close the Moon is to the horizon affects the illusion of more than a supermoon.
Wednesday’s and on the night between Thursday, the Finnish sky will be illuminated by a so-called super moon.
Supermoon appears thenwhen the Earth is between the Moon and the Sun – as always during the full moon – and at the same time the Moon is in its orbit at perigeum i.e. at the point closest to the Earth.
“Supermoon is a new astrological name. In the last ten years, it has started to be used for the kind of full moon that happens when the Moon is in its slightly oval orbit at the point where it is closest to the Earth,” says the Ursa spokesperson of the Astronomical Association Anne Liljeström.
of the United States space administration according to NASA of the perigee time, the Moon appears from Earth to be 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than the apogee time – that is, when the Moon is farthest from the Earth.
“Then the Moon looks a little bigger and brighter when viewed in absolute terms,” says Liljeström.
However, according to him, the difference is not very noticeable with the naked eye. More According to Liljeström, the experience of the size of the Moon is affected by whether the Moon is high in the sky or close to the horizon. This is called a moon illusion.
“It’s obviously related to the fact that the eye then has something to compare the size of the Moon to. It has trees and houses.”
A supermoon over the Hagia Sofia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday.
Super moons in themselves are not rare. According to Liljeström, the nighttime supermoon is already the fourth of the year.
The supermoon is also the second full moon of August, or the so-called blue moon, which also occurs regularly. of the United States public radio NPR however, the next “blue supermoon” will not be visible until 2032.
Despite its name, it does not mean that the moon looks blue, says Liljeström.
“This month has two full moons. Then the Americans call this latter a blue moon because it is comparatively rare.”
The tides are slightly stronger during a supermoon than a normal full moon.
An online publication that follows space research and astronomy Space.com reports, that coastal flooding is possible during the supermoon. If the supermoon coincides with a hurricane or other significant storm, conditions at sea can be rough and flooding can be serious.
Currently, the storm Idalia, which has become a hurricane, is approaching the southeast coast of the United States. News agency AP has warned that together Idalia and the supermoon could cause flooding in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
“I would say that the timing is pretty bad [superkuulle]”, says a meteorologist at the Charleston, South Carolina Meteorological Department Brian Haines.
In Finland, due to the small size of the Baltic Sea, the variation is so small that it can hardly be detected. The tides from the Atlantic do not reach Finland.
“We don’t have any waterways in Finland [vuorovesien vaikutusta] hardly noticed. It is not striking in the same way as, for example, on the coast of England,” says Liljeström.
In the capital region”you hardly get to admire the blue supermoon during the night anyway. According to the forecast of the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the evening and night look quite cloudy.
According to Liljeström, Jupiter and Saturn would also be visible at the moment. Saturn’s visibility is improved by the fact that this month it is in “opposition”, i.e. on the opposite side of the sky to the Sun.