Attention photographers and astronomy fans – the first and only Supermoon of 2017 is coming this weekend!
This year’s Supermoon (now being called the ‘Cold Moon’) will rise in Charlotte at exactly 5:39pm on Sunday night (12/3), and set on Monday Morning at 8:05am (12/4), according to timeanddate.com.
The somewhat rare phenomena of a Supermoon occurs when a full moon is at perigee or its closest approach to Earth during its orbit. This weekend’s rare ‘Cold Moon’ perigee will climax on Monday, December 4, at 3:43am, when the moon will be exactly 222,137 miles away from the earth.
The last supermooon to hit the night skies was over a year ago, and it was closer to Earth than it’s been since 1948. It won’t be that close until 2034.
This weekend, the moon won’t actually change in size, but it will be significantly closer to the earth than usual. Sunday night’s supermoon will appear about 14% bigger and about 30% brighter than the average full moon.
The weather forecast for Sunday night is showing clear skies, so it should be the perfect night in Charlotte for some epic photos.
If for some reason you aren’t able to get outside or look out the window, you can watch the Cold Moon rise and set live on Youtube here;