The second installment of this winter’s trio of supermoons, sometimes nicknamed the Super Snow Moon, will peak today (Feb. 19), so don’t forget to step outside and look up tonight.
The full moon technically occurs on at 10:53 a.m. EST (1553 GMT), but don’t despair if the morning light washes out the moon at the time: to the unpracticed eye, it will still look full tonight. In fact, of the three “supermoons” that start 2019, today’s full moon will be the biggest of the year.
If your weather looks threatening, you can also catch sight of the full moon online, thanks to live broadcasts from the Virtual Telescope Project based in Rome, beginning at 11:30 a.m. EST (1630 GMT), and from Slooh, beginning at 7 p.m. EST (000 GMT).
And it will be a particularly splendid sight, since the moon is at perigee just a few hours before it is full, hence the “supermoon” moniker. It will appear about 10 percent larger than an average full moon on account of being relatively close to Earth, just 221,681 miles (356,761 kilometers) away.
Source: Space.com