Snow Moon 2019: How to watch this year's brightest super moon

Another super moon is about to pass the celestial stage this week, and it is the largest and brightest satellite that our natural satellite will appear all year long.

We get a supermoon when the moon is full or nearly full and also at its closest point to the Earth along its slightly elliptical orbit. This close approach is called perigee by astronomers. In 2019, there are three supermoons and they fall in the first three months of the year.

You may remember that in January, we had the show of "super blood moon wolf"in which a lunar eclipse or" moon of blood "coincided with a super moon and the first full moon of the calendar year, traditionally called the wolf moon.

This Tuesday night will bring the "super moon of snow". Due to many nuances in the interactions between the sun, the earth and the moon, the distance between us and each super-moon varies a bit. It turns out that this week's perigee will be closer to us than last month's supermoon, according to NASA.

You must have a remarkably trained eye to see the difference between each super-moon. It's hard enough to see the difference between a normal full moon and a super-moon, which appears up to 14% larger in the sky and maybe 30% brighter.

If you really want to be seduced, your best bet is to watch the full moon when it rises to the east while the sun goes down to the west. It is at this point that it seems to be the largest, although this is mainly due to an optical illusion.

This happens when the moon is close to the horizon and there are objects such as trees or buildings in our field of vision, says NASA astronomer Mitzi Adams. "Because these relatively close objects are in front of the moon, our brain is led to think that the moon is much closer to the objects in our field of vision," says Adams.

Adams adds that you can check the effect by holding a coin at arm's length so that it covers the moon. Do it at moonrise when the moon appears huge on the horizon and later when it appears smaller in the sky and you will see that the same size room covers the moon all night.

It should be obvious why a February full moon traditionally calls a "snow moon" in the United States. The second calendar month is historically more filled with mellow white rainfall than any other.

It also means that the snow super moon is more likely to be stuck at the sight of, well … snowfall. If this happens, it still remains the third and last supermoon of 2019, to be held in exactly four weeks on March 19th.