A magnificent full moon tonight will loom larger and brighter than usual in the night sky, in a spectacle that has been called a supermoon.
At 7.10pm, the Moon will be a mere 356,577km (221,567 miles) away, the closest a full moon has been to Earth in almost 20 years, what is known as perigee. And in a rare astronomical conjunction, the peak of the full moon, when it reaches its maximum illumination, will occur just an hour earlier, at 6.11pm. As a result, the Moon will be 30 per cent brighter and 14 per cent larger than it appears at its farthest point from Earth, or apogee.
The weather forecast is encouraging for much of the UK, with plenty of clear skies, although a front approaching from the Atlantic could bring cloud to western regions.
A great deal of excitement has been generated by this rare coincidence of astronomical events, but there have also been suggestions that it will bring freak tides and chaos to the world’s weather, or even cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
There is, however, little evidence that a full moon has any effect on weather patterns or can trigger an earthquake. “Looking at years and years of lunar tides, there is no link with any earthquake activity,” said Brian Baptie, of the British Geological Survey.
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