Former director of M P Birla Planetarium, Debiprosad Duari, has informed that the people of Kolkata may witness a ‘supermoon’ on Tuesday, provided the monsoon sky is clear. Another supermoon will be visible on August 30. The term ‘supermoon’ refers to the full moon when it is closest to the Earth. This phenomenon last occurred in 2018, and the next time it will happen is in 2037. Duari mentioned the coincidence of this supermoon with the expected injection of Chandrayaan 3 module into the lunar transfer trajectory on August 23, as an exciting event. He explained that a supermoon occurs when the full moon is near its closest point to the Earth, called Perigee. Compared to a normal full moon, a supermoon appears approximately 7% bigger and 16% brighter from Earth. The average distance between the Earth and the moon is 384,000 km but can vary due to the elliptical shape of the moon’s orbit. On Tuesday night, the moon will be approximately 357,530 km from Earth and fully illuminated by sunlight around 12:01 am. Kolkata residents will have an exciting opportunity to view the big, bright supermoon if the monsoon sky allows. On August 30, the moon will be even closer, only 357,344 km from the Earth, and this second full moon in the same month will be referred to as a ‘blue moon.’
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