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As everyone knows, the moon doesn’t revolve around the world in a perfect circle. It not only wobbles, but its own center of rotation is off-kilter from the earth being at the center. Every few months we have a “Super Moon”, where the moon is at apogee and is also a full moon. Typically, these happen about once per year, but these last two years have been saturated with them!
The Super Moon will appear very large as it is rising. But don’t miss it– after only 10-20 minutes you will begin to see a noticeable decrease in both perceived size and actual brightness, so I highly recommend taking the 10 minutes to watch it rise! The moon is technically a Super Moon on the 14th and will be rising at 5:28pm coming from about 72°– or WSW to us normal folk.
Busy at 5:28 on Monday like a normal human is? Catch the before or after show, with moonrises the following days:
– Today (the 12th) at 3:54 pm from the East (81°)
– Sunday (the 13th) at 4:39 pm from ENE (76°)
– Monday (the 14th) at 5:28 pm from ENE (72°)
– Tuesday (the 15th) at 6:22 pm from ENE (69°)
The coincidence of this month’s full moon with perigee will– as it normally does– create a dramatic range of high and low ocean tides. These are often known as King Tides as they generally only happen once per year. So if you are in an area prone to coastal flooding (I’m looking at you, Newport Harbor Yacht Club), you will need to take appropriate measures.
Here are the major tidal schedules:
Monday the 14th:
– High tide @ 8:05am (6.7ft)
– Low tide @ 3:07pm (-1.2ft)
Tuesday the 15th:
– High tide @ 8:46am (6.7ft)
– Low tide @ 3:55pm (-1.2ft)
These are the highest tides measured so far all year, but we have two bigger ones at 6.8 feet next month, so don’t relax after this one… winter is coming!
Thankfully, we have no storms forecasted at this time, which would contribute to flooding as the storm drains would need to be closed as to not drain into the bay during high tide (to prevent washback from the bay onto the islands and peninsula)
This moon will be 14% larger than a full moon and 30% brighter than a normal moon, and while we’ll have one more [smaller] Super Moon on December 14th this year, the last time one was even within the range of being as close as it is this time was back in January 1948, and the next one won’t be until November 25th, 2034.
Mr Fancypants Neil deGrasse Tyson, though, hates the popularity of Supermoons, saying “I don’t know who first called it a supermoon. I don’t know, but if you have a 16-inch pizza, would you call that a super pizza compared with a 15-inch pizza?” Well Tyson, I realize you are talking about a normal 16″ pizza, but if I hadn’t seen a this big of a pizza since 1948, I would call it pretty darn super! So get out there and check it out for this twice-in-a-lifetime apogee distance, take some outstanding photos (and send them to me), and sandbag your low-lying areas. It’s gonna be one for the recordbooks!
