Cross your fingers extra tight, because there’s a chance the clouds will part and you’ll be in for an eyeful Saturday night.
That’s when the moon will be at perigee — the closest point in its orbit around the Earth. Perigee happens every month, but this time there’s something special going on: The moon will also be full.
That means we have all the making of a so-called “supermoon,” the largest the moon has appeared in the sky in nearly 20 years.
You might recall the “supermoon” received some attention last week, when it was erroneously blamed for causing a devastating earthquake in Japan. Besides bringing slightly higher-than-average tides, the celestial event won’t do much besides put on a good show, scientist say.
“The last full Moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993,” Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory said in a statement from NASA. “I’d say it’s worth a look.”
Don’t expect a “George Bailey lassos the moon” type experience; the perigee moon is still about 356,577 kilometers away. It’s about 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than an apogee moon.
