According to the folklore of American farmers, this July full moon is also nicknamed “thunder” or “deer”.
–
A super full moon is a phenomenon when the Moon is full and at the same time is closest in its orbit around the Earth. The phenomenon will appear for the second time this year, the first super full moon was in June.
–
According to Horálek, the moon will be full at 20:37 CEST (geocentric time), while approximately 9.5 hours earlier, at 11:05 CEST, it was closest to the Earth on its elliptical path in the so-called ground floor, at a distance of 357 263 kilometers from our planet. During the super full moon in June, the Moon was on the ground floor at a distance of 357,428 km.
–
“This makes the current full moon the angularly largest of the year, it will be almost 15 percent angularly larger than the smallest (last year on October 31) and roughly 30 percent brighter,” Horálek described.
–
Full moon over Kunětická hora (2020)
Photo: Petr Horálek
He reminded, however, that the moon will rise in the Czech Republic only after the mentioned time of the full moon – in Prague, the lunar disk will not rise until 21:36 CET, i.e. almost an hour after the full moon.
–
Within the former Czechoslovakia, eastern Slovakia is in the best position, where the moon rises almost 40 minutes earlier – for example in Humenné at 20:58, i.e. 21 minutes after the full moon.
–
It is not an astronomical term
However, according to Pavel Gabzdylo from the Brno Observatory and Planetarium, to which Horálek refers, the term “super full moon” is somewhat misleading. This designation was first used by astrologer (not astronomer) Richard Nolle in 1979.
–
“He defined a supermoon as a new or full moon that occurs at a distance less than or equal to 90 percent of its shortest distance from Earth in a given orbit. However, why he chose 90 percent, no one has any idea,” noted the astronomer Gabzdyl earlier.
–
At the same time, the difference in the angular distance of the Moon on the ground floor and from the ground is visually so small that it could be equal to the thickness of a matchstick at a distance of one meter from the eye. That the Moon is really big can appear to us when it rises or sets low above the horizon, because our brain automatically compares it with objects on the horizon.
–
Comparison of sizes of full moons
Photo: Brno & Sedmikrásky Observatory and Planetarium online
Thanks to this illusion, distant objects on the horizon sometimes seem really “giant”. This can be used, for example, when taking pictures.
–
And what will the conditions be for observing the phenomenon, or rather how will the weather “cooperate” in the evening? It won’t be completely one hundred percent.
–
“The most cloudiness will be in the northwest of the territory – even cloudy. Almost clear in eastern Bohemia and western Moravia. Cloudy to partly cloudy in the rest of the territory,” meteorologist Dagmar Honsová answered Novinek’s question.
–
The next significant full moon on the ground floor will occur next year, on August 31, 2023. The moon will then approach the Earth approximately nine hours earlier, at 17:52 CEST, at a distance of 357,181 km, i.e. even closer than this year.
—
