It's Time to Catch the Moon

Comrades! Fill your space-rockets, check the giant catapults, stock up on gunpowder for the mega-gun, sharpen your harpoons and prepare rope... or even just prepare your cameras.

After all, today is the best time to catch the Moon for the last 70 years, and you will not have the best chance until 2034, it's a Supermoon!

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Not to say that the Supermoon is a rare phenomenon, for example the last was about a month ago, and another one in September. This is due to the fact that the moon's orbit is not a perfect circle with the center as the earth, is an elliptical.

Because of this distance from the earth to the moon is not constant, moreover, the moon is exposed to not only the strength of Earth's gravity, but also Sun's, so the orbit of the motion is constantly rejected.

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The average distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,000 km, but because of elliptical orbit motion there are two key points regarding the location of the moon to the earth: apogee (maximum distance) and perigee (minimum distance). Supermoon is a combination of two effects - a full moon and location of it at the perigee point in its orbit.

Due to this phenomenon, on 13 and 14 November, the Moon will look bigger by 14% and light 30% brighter.

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Under the current perigee distance between the planet and the satellite will be approximately 356.000 km, 30,000 km closer than we used to.

For reference: the circumference of the earth 40,000 km, represent how much fuel you can save. The fastest hypersonic aircraft X43-A could cover this distance in approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes.

If you are not going to fly to the moon, or try to catch it, or at least take a picture of it, then just find some time to look at it with your own eyes. When?

The moon turns precisely full on November 14, 2016 at 13:52 UTC. This full moon instant will happen in the morning hours before sunrise November 14 in western North America and on many Pacific islands, east of the International Date Line. (See worldwide map below.) The moon will look plenty full and bright all night long on both nights – November 13 and 14 – as it rises in the east around sunset, climbs highest up around midnight, and then sets in the west at or near sunrise. (source)

But be careful! As we know the moon affects the tides in the oceans, the closer the moon to the earth, the stronger the tides, so if you are going to observe this wonderful phenomenon on the beach, get away for a couple of centimeters back from the usual line of surf.

Physics on the example of the huge cosmic bodies is incredible, it fascinates, excites the imagination. Models of interaction of the planets and the satellites reflect the model of interaction of the smallest particles inside atoms, and the implications of these relationships, we sometimes can see with the naked eye. In the past, they acquired a mystical significance and an impact on the whole of civilization, but today, thanks to science we can precisely determine the causes of many phenomena. Anyway, it does not prevent us to feel the magic of the moment.

Good luck my friends, look up at the sky and dream!

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