‘Super moon’ on Sunday night

MoonMoon

Researchers report that there will be significant events in the night sky on Sunday night. A so-called ‘super moon’ will coincide with a star event.

 

A ‘super moon’ occurs when a full moon is at the nearest point to the earth in its oblong orbit.

‘The moon was full on Saturday at 06.23. It is closest to us on Monday at 02.10, when it will be only 361,438 kilometres (224,000 miles) away’, wrote astrophysicist, Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard, and science fiction writer, Anne Mette Sannes, on the website astroevents.no.

When the moon is at the nearest point to Earth in its orbit, it may appear 14% bigger and 40% more bright than when it’s furthest away.

Those awake at midnight on Sunday can also experience a rare star event. It happens when the moon passes in front of a star.

The ‘super moon’ will pass before the star, Aldebaran, in the constellation Tyren’, wrote Røed Ødegaard and Sannes.

Aldebaran is the fourteenth brightest star in the night sky, and is often called ‘The Red Eye of the Bull’.

People in Svalbard will be the first to see Aldebaran disappear behind the moon’s left edge, at 03.22. On the mainland, it can be seen in western Norway at approximately 03.34. In Trondheim, at 03.37, in Oslo at 03.39, and in Kirkenes at 03.40.

The phenomenon will last for approximately an hour.

©  NTB Scanpix / Norway Today