Originally published on July 11, 2022, at Guy Ottewell’s blog. Reprinted with permission.
A supermoon is a full and near moon
The moon will be full, and at its nearest to Earth for 2022, on Wednesday, July 13.
Twice or sometimes three times every year, we have these near-in moons, nowadays called supermoons. A supermoon is defined as being near its perigee, or closest point in orbit to Earth, at a time when the moon is also new or full.
See our graph below of the moon’s distance from Earth in 2022. This graph comes from the Astronomical Calendar 2022.
July 13 is the closest supermoon of 2022
The time of the July 13 perigee is 9:04 UTC, which by clocks on distorted summer time show as 10:04 a.m. in Britain, and 4:04 a.m. in North America’s Central time zone.
The perigee happens only 9.5 hours before the moment of full moon.
The moon is the main cause of Earth’s tides. But the sun, vastly larger and vastly more distant, adds a pull about half as strong. This is why the highest amplitude of tides comes at these two near-in moons – the year’s closest new moon and the year’s closest full moon – which, in 2022, fall slightly less than half a year apart.
Where I live in the UK, there is also a heat wave rising. But its amplitude may have more human than lunar contribution.
Astronomer, artist and poet Guy Ottewell's beloved Astronomical Calendar is back! Find the 2024 calendar here: https://www.universalworkshop.com/astronomical-calendar-2024/ And visit Guy’s website UniversalWorkshop.com or his blog at UniversalWorkshop.com/Guysblog. Guy's stories and art are used here with permission, and we are honored to have them. Thank you, Guy! The image shows Guy walking from the Carolina coast to the Blue Ridge mountains one spring (as depicted in Sky & Telescope magazine).
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