This weekend will witness the full snow moon that is also termed as the supermoon. The spectacular view can be witnessed on Sunday, Feb 9. But there is a debate if it can be called a supermoon. In fact, supermoon is a full moon that comes closest to the Earth's orbit resulting in a larger-than-usual size visible from the Earth.
Astronomer Gianluca Masi speaking to Newsweek said that the moon will be located around 225,000 miles from the Earth when it is full this weekend. Thus the moon will be seen seven percent larger and 10-15 percent brighter than the usual full moon, making it a supermoon.
Time, date of the supermoon
The snow moon can be seen in its fullest at 2:33 am Eastern time on Sunday, February 9. In the New York City region, the moon will rise in the east-northeast sky at 4:41 pm Saturday, at 5:56 pm Sunday and 7:12 pm on Monday states TimeAndDate.com.
The snow moon will set in the west-northwestern sky at 7:27 am on Sunday (February 9), the same part of the sky at 8:06 am on Monday and in the western sky at 8:40 am on Tuesday. Apart from being called the snow moon, the February moon is also called bone moon and hunger moon.
It is apparently called snow moon since it snows in North America in February. It is named hunger moon because during this time the weather is rough and there is a scarcity of food. On the same lines of hunger moon, it is also called bone moon as very less food is available during this time and ancient people depended on bone marrow soup.
It is also said that this is the first supermoon of the four consecutive moons. According to astronomer Fred Espenak supermoons will also occur in March, April and May this year. After January 26, 1948, the closest supermoon occurred on November 14, 2016. The next closest supermoon of the 21st century can be witnessed on December 6, 2052.
Click here to check the timings of the snow moon in your area.
