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The moon was at its peak just before 4 pm EST on Tuesday. Twelve hours earlier, it was closer to the perigee of 2019. Together, this gives a "super moon," the largest and brightest moon of the year.
Even with the cloudy skies tonight, the moon may seem a little brighter.
Astronomers know that this close arrangement of the sun, the Earth, and the Moon is a perigee syzygy. Syzygy is the alignment of the sun, the Earth and the Moon. The perigee is the closest point of Earth to the non-circular orbit of the moon.
The next "supermoon" will take place on March 21, 2019, but the full moon will be more than 2,400 miles apart, which will slightly reduce the size of the moon. We will not see another "supermoon" until September 2020.
If you find a break in the clouds Tuesday night, the best time to see the full moon is shortly after sunset. It will look bigger when it is closer to the horizon.
If the clouds hide the moon tonight, you can watch from telescopes in Ceccano, Italy.
Tony Rice is a volunteer with the NASA / JPL Solar System Ambassador Program and Software Engineer at Cisco Systems. You can follow him on Twitter @rtphokie.
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