HOW DO I SEE THE SUPERMOON?

WHEN: 8 APRIL AND 7 MAY 2020

This year, April and May are especially good months for moongazers, because we have two supermoons in a row (three if you count the March supermoon).

A full moon ‘supermoon’ is defined as a full moon that coincides with the Moon being at (or within 90 per cent of) its closest point to the Earth (its ‘perigee’) as it follows its elliptical orbit around us. A supermoon can be up to 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter than a normal full moon. Technically, a new moon can also be a supermoon, but we don’t tend to mark these because we can’t see them! The next full moon supermoon after these will be in April 2021.

Supermoons are a great opportunity to study the surface of our natural satellite with binoculars. The best time to do this is actually not on the night of the full moon itself, as it can be too bright. Instead, pick a night a few days before or after the full moon to see the most detail. The easiest features to spot are the Moon’s craters – especially the younger ones, which tend to be brighter. You should be able to see a large, bright crater just to the left of the centre of the Moon’s surface. This is Copernicus, which is 93km wide and thought to be around 800 million years old (relatively young by the Moon’s standards). If you imagine a line of symmetry drawn vertically through the Moon’s disk, the Apollo 11 landing site, in the Sea of Tranquillity, is pretty much where Copernicus would be reflected on the other side.

You should also be able to see two more distinctive craters with your binoculars – Aristarchus, which is to the left of Copernicus, and the huge Tycho crater at the very bottom. If you look closely enough you’ll see there are many more craters, each one evidence of the Moon’s billions of years of meteorite bombardment.