Super Worm Moon Is Monday Night

Are you ready for the supermoon which will appear on Monday night?

In fact the moon will actually appear full from Sunday through to Tuesday night, but will only be visible if we get a cloud-free sky.

In the year 2020 there will be 3 full moon supermoons on 9 March, 8 April and 7 May. After those 3 there will be 3 new moon supermoons on 17 September, 16 October and 15 November.

What is a supermoon?

A supermoon is when you look up at the night sky and the full moon looks so close you feel as if you could almost touch it, although sometimes the difference is hard to spot with the naked eye.

This is called a moon illusion as the full moon appears much larger when it rises behind a distant object on the horizon.

When the moon is closest to the earth a supermoon occurs. A supermoon will appear 14% larger and 30% brighter than usual. A supermoon looks especially large when rising and setting.

The moon will be 30,000 miles closer than usual. It sounds a lot, but the average distance between the earth and moon is 238,900 miles, so it’s not that huge a difference.

If you go outside on the night of a full supermoon you should actually notice that it is exceptionally bright.

According to the US space agency the term supermoon was first coined back in 1979 and is now quite commonly used.

Super Worm Moon

In March the full moon is also a super worm moon. It gets its name because the ground is getting warmer and starts to thaw and the earthworms are re-appearing at the start of spring.

Another name for the March full moon is sap moon as it is the time for tapping the sugar maple trees.

Traditional Full Moon Names 2020

January 10 - Wolf Moon
February 9 - Snow Moon
March 9 - Worm Moon
April 7 - Pink Moon
May 7 - Flower Moon
June 5 - Strawberry Moon
July 5 - Buck Moon
August 3 - Sturgeon Moon
September 2 - Corn Moon
October 1 - Harvest Moon
October 31 - Blue Moon
November 30 - Beaver Moon
December 29 - Cold Moon

Many of these ancient moon names have been given based on the behaviour of the plants, animals, or weather during that month.

It is said that they were the names given by Native American tribes and included into our modern calendar. However the Full Moon names we now use also have Anglo-Saxon and Germanic roots.

The next full moon, which will be another supermoon will rise on the 7 April and will be the Pink Moon.