Named After more easily caught sturgeon in the Great Lakes and other waters this time of year, the sturgeon moon ends 2022’s series of four supermoons, which began in May. . After sunset, look southeast to see this supermoon rise. It will reach peak brightness at 9:36 PM on Thursday.
“At certain times of the year, the moon is so close to Earth that these are called supermoons,” Mike Hankey, operations manager for the American Meteorological Society, said by email. “This is the natural point of the Moon’s orbit. At each extreme, the Moon is slightly larger or slightly smaller (at its distance), but it’s not a big difference.”
This proximity is called perigee, and is about 226,000 miles (363,300 kilometers) from Earth. . That’s why a supermoon appears slightly brighter than a regular full moon. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, the moon’s distance from Earth changes throughout the month because its orbit is not perfectly circular.
If you snap a cool photo of the supermoon, you can share it on social media with the hashtag #NASAMoonSnap — a phrase NASA uses to track moon-inspired content leading up to the late summer launch of Artemis I. Flight of the rocket and spacecraft that would send future astronauts to the moon . Agency shared and will share certain user content on its social media platforms during launch broadcasts.
The Sturgeon Moon will steal the spotlight from the Perseid meteor shower Thursday through Saturday.
“Bright moon phases are bad for meteor showers because they wash out fainter meteors,” Hankey said. “A full or nearly full moon dominates an area of the sky, making that area undesirable for observing meteors. A full moon lasts all night, with no hour of total darkness, which is desirable.”
The Perseid meteor shower will last from July 14 to September 1, and this year’s rare peak will occur on Friday at 11pm ET (3:00am UTC Saturday). . In previous years, the Perseids were the most anticipated showers in the Northern Hemisphere, where they were usually more visible. But only when the moon is not in a dominating phase in the sky.
This year, the Perseids — which grow stronger in numbers from dusk to dawn — were most visible in early August when the moon appeared small and dim. In earlier years, they were more visible in almost moonless skies.
The shower fragments come from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which takes 133 years to orbit the Sun once. . The comet last entered the inner solar system in 1992.
Remaining Space Events in 2022
Accordingly, there will be four more full moons this year :
- September 10: Harvest Moon
- October 9: Hunter’s Moon
- November 8: Beaver Moon
- December 7: Cold Moon
There are other Native American tribes For full moons such as the Cheyenne tribe’s “dry grass moon” in September and the Arapaho tribe’s “popping trees” for the December full moon.
Watch for a peak of these meteor shower events coming up later this year, according to EarthSky :
- Dragonids: October 8-9
- Orionides: October 20-21
- Southern Dorries: November 5
- Northern Tarits: November 12
- Leonidas: November 17-18
- Gemini: December 13-14
- Ursits: December 22-23
And in 2022 there will be another total lunar eclipse and a partial solar eclipse. . The October 25 partial solar eclipse will be visible to people in Greenland, Iceland, Europe, Northeast Africa, the Middle East, West Asia, India and Western China.
A total lunar eclipse on November 8 will be visible in Asia, Australia, the Pacific, South America and North America between 3:01 a.m. ET and 8:58 a.m. ET. But for people in eastern North America, the moon will be waning at that time.
Wear proper eclipse glasses to view the solar eclipse safely, as sunlight can damage the eye.
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