A dazzling supermoon is set to converge with a partial lunar eclipse on Wednesday. Unfortunately, in the Southern Hemisphere, the eclipse happened during daylight hours but Aussies can still stream it from the northern end of the globe. But this means the supermoon will appear brighter in Australia, due to both the proximity of the moon to the horizon during its early moonrise peak, and because part of it will not fall under the Earth’s shadow as it would under a night-time eclipse.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today “The eclipse tonight will not be a total lunar eclipse so the moon won’t appear red, instead a portion of the moon will darken,” NASA project scientist Noah Petro said of the Northern Hemisphere eclipse experience. As for when to best spot the Harvest Supermoon, stargazers Down Under should look skyward between roughly 6pm and 7pm, depending on where they live. The different between a supermoon and a regular full moon is about 65,000km — a supermoon appears bigger than a regular full moon because its phase coincides with its closer orbit to the Earth, according to Time and Date.
That closer proximity is why the supermoon appears up to 17 per cent larger and up to 30 per cent brighter than a normal full moon, it said. It also means the moon’s gravity is about 4 per cent greater, which can lead to higher-than-normal tides, informally known as king tides. As for where the Harvest Supermoon gets its name, stargazers must look again to the No.