The last supermoon of the year peaks on Friday; here's when you can see it

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — After the sun sets at 5:25 PM on Friday evening, you should be able to see a rising supermoon!

This will be the fourth and final supermoon of the year. Since this will be a full moon in November, it is also called the Beaver Moon.

What is a supermoon? This answer to this question starts with the moon’s orbit around the Earth. This path of this track is not a circle, it is more of an oval.

Therefore, the distance between the moon and the Earth changes during the orbit. Perigee is the point closest to Earth.

A supermoon occurs when perigee occurs around the time of a full moon. Supermoons appear 14% larger and 30% brighter than a moon at Earth’s furthest point. Apogee is the term for the distance at which the moon is farthest from the Earth.

This will be the fourth and final supermoon of the year.(Arizona’s family)

Finally, have you ever noticed that the moon seems particularly large when it is close to the horizon? NASA explains that this is something called the moon illusion. In other words, the moon isn’t actually bigger when it’s close to the horizon; it’s just your brain playing tricks on you.

To prove this point, a NASA article recommends taking a photo when it is close to the horizon and another when it is high in the sky. If you keep your camera zoom settings the same, you will notice that the moon is the same width in both photos, from left to right.

There may be some clouds passing through the Valley tonight, but there should be plenty of supermoon viewing opportunities!

Do you see a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a current news item? To steer it here for us with a short description.