Biggest And Brightest Supermoon Of The Year To Appear Sunday
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- If the clouds cooperate Sunday evening, a massive full moon will rise over Maryland.
Alex DeMetrick reports it is the second of three supermoons to appear this year, and it will be the biggest and brightest of the lot.
The closer something gets, the bigger it looks. Sunday evening, the moon will look very big.
"The reason it's going to be bigger is this is the closest a full moon will be to us this year," said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
NASA's website explains it this way: the moon's elliptical orbit brings it closest to Earth during perigee and furthest away at apogee. When full, that 31,000 mile difference makes for so-called supermoons.
This year, three supermoons will occur, all in the summer. The first happened in July, the second happens Sunday and the last in early September.
But it's the second that will be biggest and brightest, especially during moonrise, when it will look, well, other-worldly.
"It's an optical illusion, a trick of the mind, and the atmosphere has a slightly magnifying effect. But mostly, it's our eyes playing tricks on us," said Damagal-Goldman.
A supermoon isn't so much about science as it is about taking the time to savor a moment.
"You don't have to go out into the country, into the sticks. You can just go and look at the moon from Baltimore and share in the same beautiful sight people all over the world are going to see," Damagal-Goldman said.
Moonrise will happen at 7:55 p.m. Sunday. Look to the east for this year's biggest supermoon.
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