Hey DMV, need a break from reality? I sure do. Wednesday night is just the ticket for relief if you like supermoons and comets!
At sunset, perhaps through partly cloudy skies, you will see a glorious, almost full, hunter’s moon rising in the east after sunset that may appear a bit brighter and larger than other full moons — a supermoon. Skies are forecast to clear later in the evening and stay clear on Thursday so the moon will be gloriously bright through the night into dawn.
According to EarthSky.org, “2024’s closest and brightest supermoon is coming. The Super Hunter’s Moon of October 17 will also be the 3rd of 4 supermoons in a row in 2024.”
The moon will reach its “perigee,” or closest point to Earth for the month of October, at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday night, according to EarthSky.org.
Around 10 hours later, the crest of the moon will fall at 7:26 a.m. on Thursday morning.
EarthSky is livestreaming a celebration with more information on the super hunter’s moon Wednesday.
This supermoon is special because it also happens to be the hunter’s moon, or the first full moon after the harvest moon that occurred last month.
With fall in full swing the light of the super hunter’s moon gives us a magical view of our familiar day time world once away from city lights and can really illuminate your surroundings. I hope you will spend some time outside by the light of the full super hunter’s moon.
While outside, face to the west and look for comet A3. It will be several fist widths to the upper right of bright Venus. Because of the bright moon in the east the comet might be a bit harder to find. I have used binoculars to find it and my iPhone to image it. The comet has a well-developed and long tail.
With our partly cloudy forecast it is worth looking for the comet through sucker holes in the clouds (as you can see in the image to the right). The comet will set at about about 9:15 p.m. but the tail may be visible above the horizon.
One last thing. If you missed last week’s wondrous Aurora display, fret not. There will be more coming as the Sun has reached Solar Maximum and will be producing similar conditions to hopefully bring views of Aurora.
Follow Greg Redfern on Facebook, X and his daily blog to keep up with the latest news in astronomy and space exploration.
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