Arab world skies witness last full moon of 2020 next Tuesday

03:34

Friday 25 December 2020

Books – Youssef Afifi:

The sky of the Arab world will witness the evening of Tuesday, December 29, at the last full moon of this year 2020, which will also represent the last full moon of the second decade of the 21st century (2011 to 2020), and it will be seen throughout night.

Engineer Majed Abu Zahra, president of the Jeddah Astronomical Society, said the moon will rise above the northeast horizon at sunset and simulate the apparent path of the June sun as it follows the path high in the sky, and that it will radiate past the constellation of the twins, or where the sun will be after six months, so the completion of the moon in December reminds us that the long daylight hours of June will return.

Abu Zahra added on the association’s official Facebook page that he will notice that the apparent size of the moon is large during its sunrise when it is close to the horizon, and that it may be red. or orange, but after its ascent in the sky its small size returns, and it is only an optical illusion which occurs in the middle of each lunar month.

He explained that the pink or orange color in which the moon can appear during its sunrise is due to the atmosphere of our planet, as its components work to scatter the white light reflected from the moon, so the colors of the short wavelength blue spectrum are scattered and the colors of the long wavelength red spectrum reaching our eyes, which is the same reason we see the reddish setting sun.

He continued: This is followed by the arrival of the moon at the highest point in the sky at midnight, directly above the viewer’s head, and it will set on the northwest horizon with the northwest. sunrise Wednesday.

وأضاف: وبشكل عام يمكن القول بأن القمر بدرا طوال الليل, ولكن علميا نطلق تسمية القمر البدر عند اللحظة التي يكون القمر واقعا بزاوية 180 درجة من الشمس والتي ستحدث صبيحة الأربعاء 30 ديسمبر عند الساعه 6:28 صباحا بتوقيت السعودية ويكون قطع نصف مداره حول الأرض خلال the month.

On the other hand, the full moon will simulate the position of the June sun in the far north of the globe, in the north of the Arctic Circle the full moon will play the role of the midnight sun in June, and the reverse occurs. in the southernmost latitudes where the moon remains full moon below the horizon just like the sun in June.

This time of the month is considered ideal for viewing radioactive craters on the moon’s surface using binoculars or a small telescope, unlike the rest of the land which appears flat due to the entire moon falling in the sky. sun, these radiating craters are deposits of shiny reflective material that extend from the center of the craters outward for hundreds of kilometers, that these craters are newly formed, and that the “Tycho” crater is the most radiant crater.

Over the coming nights, the moon will rise about an hour late each day, and after a few days it will only be seen in the dawn and early morning sky, and at that time it will reach the last square step one week after the full moon phase.