Savour the Super Moon today

The moon will be closest to earth this year, a phenomenon called Super Moon, on Sunday. This year Super Moon coincides with Buddha Jayanti. 

Experts say, on Sunday, those on the western coast will notice the moon setting just a few minutes before sunrise and rising in the evening an hour after sunset. 

“The distance between the earth and the moon on this day will be 3,56,955 km and its angular size will be 0.5515 degrees,” said Arvind Paranjpye, Director of Mumbai’s Nehru Planetarium, in an email statement about the Super Moon. 

The time of its occurrence is estimated to be 9.05 am IST, though the moon would appear fairly large when it rises in the evening an hour after the sun goes down below the western horizon. 

“It is interesting to note that on May 6, the moon will set on the western horizon, a few minutes before sunrise. It will rise the same evening about an hour after sunset,” Paranjpye said in his note.

He said the full moon of November 28 will be the farthest the moon will go from earth this year. On that occasion, the earth’s satellite will be 4,06,349 km from it with an angular size of 0.4942 degrees. The moon would then appear 11 per cent smaller than the Super Moon on May 6. 

“One cannot perceive this change easily with the naked eyes, especially when the two events are placed so far apart in time,” Paranjpye said. 

Howev­er, the difference in size will be “striking”, if a viewer were to take digital pictures of the moon on the two occasions and compare them. The difference in size explains the elliptical path planets and their satellites take when they revolve. 

It was the 17th century German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler who first contended that planets revolving the sun take an elliptical path, a phenomenon seen among satellites of the planets too.

 The distance between planets and satellites also differs depending on the position during the elliptical revolution. 

During the Super Moon phenomenon, the moon and the earth also come in a straight line with the sun, affecting ocean tides. “This one is probably special, coming on the Buddha Jayanti day,” Paranjpye said.