The biggest, brightest Moon of the year is almost here. On 23 June 2013, a Supermoon will be occurring. What that means is that the Moon will be closer to the Earth than at any other time during the year - in fact, the upcoming Supermoon will be the closest encounter between the Earth and the Moon until August 2014.
The Moon will reach its closest distance to the Earth at exactly 7:32 am EDT (4:32 am PDT) on 23 June, but because it will be peaking in the early morning hours, both 22 June and 23 June will put on similar shows. So either day will be a good opportunity to see the larger-and-brighter-than-normal Supermoon.
This year the Supermoon will be up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than a typical Full Moon is. This is a result of the Moon reaching its perigree - the closest that it gets to the Earth during the course of its orbit. During perigree on 23 June the Moon will be "only" about 221,824 miles away, as compared to the 252,581 miles away that it is at its furthest distance from the Earth (apogee). The Moon will actually be at apogee only two weeks after the Supermoon, on 7 July.
http://moon.nasa.gov/newsdisplay.cfm...ID=6&iSiteID=1
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