Muscat: The first of the two supermoons to appear in August will be visible in Oman on Tuesday when the moon will be 357,530km from the Earth.
According to the Omani Astronomical Society, the sky of the Sultanate of Oman will be brighter during this month of August and the second one which will be the largest and brightest supermoon of 2023 will be on August 30.
Mahmoud al Amiri, a member of the Omani Astronomical Society, said, "The phenomenon of the full moon occurs when the moon is full and is located near the closest point in its orbit around the Earth, as the moon revolves around the Earth in an elliptical orbit, and accordingly the distance between the moon and the earth changes during the month and once again at the farthest point in its orbit, and for this reason, the size and brightness of the moon vary in one month according to its location from these two points."
He added: The moon will appear with an estimated size of about 8 percent and with a brightness of about 16 percent more than it is at the farthest point at 10:33 pm Sultanate time. It passed at the nearest point from the Earth at 11:52 am today at a distance of 358,121 km from Earth. Its color will be reddish or orange at the moment of sunrise as a result of dust and other plankton in the atmosphere around the Earth, which dissolve the white light reflected from it and disperse the colors of the blue spectrum, and the colors of the red spectrum that we see remain, but after its height and distance from the horizon it will appear In the usual silver-white color, it will continue to decorate the sky throughout the night until it sets with sunrise on Wednesday at 4:46 am."
The August full moon is called the Sturgeon Moon because the giant sturgeon in North America's Great Lakes and Lake Champlain are caught extensively during this period.
Al Amiri said indicated that the best time to monitor and photograph this astronomical phenomenon is at the sunrise or sunset of the moon when it can be compared to what is around it, and this shows the difference in its size and brightness, stressing that it is difficult to distinguish this difference when it becomes high in the sky.
The last time there were two full supermoons in the same month was in 2018.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
