The spectacle of the 'biggest' supermoon of the year
It is a spectacle that the sky offers us when the Moon is at perigee, i.e. at the closest possible point to the Earth, and also at full moon. Being closer we see it bigger and also brighter
On 5 November, thanks also to the good weather conditions that this strange November offers us, we will be able to admire the seemingly largest Moon in 2025, a phenomenon that everyone now calls "supermoon".
It is a spectacle that the sky offers us when the Moon is at perigee, i.e. at the closest possible point to the Earth, and in addition is at full moon. Being closer we see it bigger and also brighter, not by much but enough to appreciate the phenomenon. Our satellite orbits us following an orbit that is not circular, but elliptical, with the closest point to Earth at 362,000 kilometres, while the most distant point is at 406,000. The difference in apparent size is therefore small, on the order of 10%, difficult for the untrained eye to appreciate, but the difference in brightness can certainly be appreciated, and it is quite a sight. In this case, the Moon will be 7% larger than average, but as much as 16% brighter; therefore, appreciable even by the non-expert.
Americans call the moons that fall in a year by names reminiscent of nature and agriculture, this one in November being the Beaver Moon, since it is full about the time beavers in the USA start building their dens to spend the winter.
The best time to observe this event in the sky is just after sunset, when the Moon rises on the horizon and appears larger to us, due to a well-known effect of perception, which then disappears as it rises in the sky, and we will also see it reddish, due to the presence of dust in the atmosphere, which scatters the blue light and instead lets the red light through. It is therefore a good idea to look for it in the early evening and follow it for a few minutes, observing it and possibly photographing it even with a smartphone, with or without a landscape around or near some monument, but in any case with a decidedly steady hand, if you do not have a tripod.
The November sky will then give us another spectacle, again weather permitting: on 17 and 18 November we will be able to see the shooting stars known as Leonids, generated by the grains of dust, left by the passage of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, entering our atmosphere.
