As winter slips into spring and the nights slowly become shorter, South Africans will be graced with the fourth-in-a-row and final supermoon of the year making its magnificent appearance in the night sky on Thursday, 11 August 2022. A spectacle no one would want to miss!
Once a month, when the Earth, sun and moon align on an invisible 180-degree line, a full moon occurs. Because the moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle, its distance from Earth changes throughout the month, hence the presence of supermoons.
A supermoon – coined by astrologer Richard Nolle – refers to a full or new moon that is within 90% of its closest point to Earth. And of course, blessed as we are, South Africans will be lucky enough to view the moon at its peak brightest during the dark of night.
While the moon will be appearing bright and full both tonight and Friday night, August’s Sturgeon Moon will peak at around 9:36pm.
The name comes from the original Algonquin tribes of what is now eastern North America who noticed a rise in sturgeon fish in their Great Lakes and were more easily caught around this time of year.
The Sturgeon Moon is the final of four supermoons. It follows July’s Buck Moon, June’s Strawberry Moon, and May’s Flower Moon (which also featured a total lunar eclipse).
The next full moon – typically called the Harvest Moon – peaks on Saturday, 10 September.
Author: Tauhira Ajam
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