By: Saadeqa Khan
The scientists and astronomers have been studying the moon for decades in order to sort out what is happening on the other planets and objects? Since the moon is considered as the “Rosetta stone” for the better study of rest of the solar system. 2016 is being deemed as the remarkable year, mankind has witnessed a series of celestial events since then in the first eleven months and more are expecting in the coming month of December.
The continuous sequence of these events outset at 9th of January 2016, when Venus and Saturn came close to each other, the distance between them reduced to much extent that astronomically it could be referred as “they kissed one and other”.
However, both of the planets are far enough apart to each other in the great dome of sky that such an event witnessed in decades or
Over a bit longer period of time.
But a fascinating celestial event of this year is a series of three supermoons, in the months of October, November and December respectively.
A full moon occurs when the sun, earth, and the moon line up, with the moon on the side of the earth, opposite to the sun. The supermoon is astronomically termed as “perigee- Syzygy” or aka-supermoon, actually the word perigee stands for that point in the orbit of the moon when our celestial neighbor comes to the closest point to the earth a distance of about 221,525 miles.
However, the media and press found it catchy to put in practice the term “supermoon” , first came up by astronomer Richard Nolle, defined the full moon as the closest point of the moon to the earth, (that could be within 90%) assumed as the closest approach in its orbit. The reason behind the variations in the distance of the moon from earth is the elliptical or oval shaped orbit of the moon, on average it is about 238,900 miles away from earth, the furthest orbital point is termed as “Apogee” when it is 5% more distant from earth. But “Perigee” is the closest point when it comes 5% closer.
In order to keek out the supermoon, the spectator must have a place that lies into a little bit lower light pollution, in the south with clear skies, should keep in the mind that how much closer the moon to the horizon, the bigger it will appear after the sunset.
So anybody could be witnessed that event without telescope since it is generally the outcome of an optical illusion if someone
Missed it one night due to cloudy weather, he could gaze it out the other night because the difference in the distance of the moon from earth is quite subtle from one to the next night.
Yesterday on 14th of November 2016, the people across the world spectacled a supermoon over after a little bit lengthy period of 69
Years that last observed in 1948, a sight that could visible once in a generation. The NASA astronomers titled this moon as “undeniably beautiful”, it was not only the closest and brightest supermoon of 2016 but also the largest one among a series of three consecutive supermoons of this year.
That was started a couple of weeks ago, early in the last month, the October moons are usually referred as “hunter moon” because it appears soon after the sunset and likely generate more light for the farmers working in the fields and hunter’s spot wildlife, this hunter moon is followed by the “harvest moon” of September. The second of this supermoon series was happened to witness by billions, the people all over the world caught in fever of that impressive sight that reached the peak of its phase on Monday morning (8:52 EST GMT) in Pakistan it was 7:20pm. This moon has referred as the “beaver moon”, the brightest and closest moon since 1948. A bewitched sight when the moon was 14% bigger and 30% brighter, nothing would match it until the moon makes a similar approach on Nov 2034.
The last of this supermoon sequence would happen on December 14th, a full cold moon expectedly peaks on 7:05 EST Nov 13th,
00:05 GMT on Dec 14th, according to NASA’s official sources. This moon would be remarkable for several reasons, the most prominent of them is, it wipes out the view of Geminid meteor shower since the brightest moon reduces the visibility of faint meteor shower up to an extent of 5-10 times. The astronomy lovers all around the world are going to hang over once again with this fantastic event.
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Great Writing and thanks for the information.
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