Summer’s Last Supermoon and Meteor Shower take the Celestial Stage Tonight

You could enjoy moonlight dancing tonight during the sturgeon supermoon, which only occurs three to four times a year. The sturgeon moon, which finishes the sequence of four supermoons that began in May 2022, was named by the Native American Algonquin tribe for the sturgeon fish more readily obtained in the Great Lakes other bodies of water around this time of year. Watch this supermoon rise to the southeast after sunset. On Thursday, it will reach its maximum brightness at 9:36 p.m. ET.

Supermoons are when the moon is closest to Earth at specific periods of the year, according to Mike Hankey, operations manager for the American Meteor Society. “It is only an inherent feature of the moon’s orbit. The moon is somewhat larger or slightly smaller (at its furthest point) at each extreme, although the change is not very great.”

According to NASA, the perigee is the closest point to Earth and is just approximately 226,000 miles (363,300 kilometres) away. Because of this, a supermoon also seems a little bit brighter than a typical full moon. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, the moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle, therefore its distance from Earth varies during the month.

You can use the hashtag #NASAMoonSnap to track moon-related content on social media if you take a cool photo of the supermoon and want to share it. According to NASA’s Tumblr, Artemis I will launch in the late summer and will be the first test flight of the rocket and spacecraft that will carry future astronauts to the moon. In addition to sharing some user-generated footage on its social media channels during the launch broadcast, the agency has made a tutorial for taking moon photos available. The Perseid Meteor shower, which peaks from Thursday through Saturday, will be overshadowed by the appearance of the full moon.