If you’re willing to get up early this Saturday morning you can experience the rare occurrence of a full micromoon.
This month’s full moon has caused a stir in the United States as it lands on Friday the 13th for the first time in 19 years. South Africans don’t have to worry about any superstitions, however, because the full moon won’t be visible in SA until the early hours of the morning on Saturday 14 September.
In addition to the full moon coinciding with this fabled, creepy date, in other parts of the world, this particular full moon is a special event because it will be a ‘micromoon’.
According to timeanddate.com, a micromoon occurs when a full moon is at the point in its orbit where it is the farthest away from the earth, also known as the lunar apogee. This will make the moon appear to be 14% smaller and 30% dimmer than the opposite phenonomenon, a supermoon.
Moon phases for South Africa. Time and Date.
There is no standard definition for what qualifies as a micromoon but timeanddate.com measures it as being more than 404,999km away from Earth.
Those wanting to witness this event will have to leave their cosy beds just before 6.32am on Saturday to catch a glimpse of the completely full micromoon.
Image source: Pixabay
