Good evening, fellow Stargazers!
Now that we're finally into the glorious summer months of 2023, we're going to be treated to a grand total of four full supermoons over the course of the next three months!
A supermoon is a full moon that occurs when our beautiful moon is closest to the Earth in its elliptical orbit at the same time when its on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun.
On average, the Moon rotates around the Earth at a distance of about 238,900 miles (or, 384,472 km). Starting tonight on July 2nd, the Moon will be close to the Earth at a distance of 224,895 miles (or, 361,934 km).
Here is the photo I took of the rising July full supermoon at about 11:00 PM EST. The July full moon is also known as the Full Buck Moon here in North America.
The haziness of the photo is the unfortunate result of slightly overcast skies and the smoke from the Canadian wildfires drifting down from up north to my little corner of the United States. All the same the features of the Man-In-The-Moon can be easily made out. I was also unable to capture the moon with any background features to put it into scale, but our lovely Luna did appear slightly larger than normal.
If you were unable to see the full supermoon this time around for whatever reason, don't worry. Y'all will be getting three more chances over the rest of the summer of 2023 -- and those will actually be closer than this one!
The next full supermoon will be on the night of Tuesday, August 1st when the Moon will be approximately 222,158 miles (or, 357,530 km) from the Earth. God willing far less hazy conditions and clearer skies will afford me the chance to capture a clearer image for y'all to enjoy.
Till then, have a wonderful evening, y'all!
