Report on the supermoon made people wait for this
phenomenon to take place on the evening of November 14, 2016. At first, they
were however not sure to see the night spectacle considering that the month of
November in the Philippines is full of
rains, dark cloudy skies and typhoons that might obstruct their view of the moon. Fortunately
for those who were expecting to see the moon on that date the weather turned
out to be fine early in the evening with the moon shining brightly. However, at
past 9 pm some dark clouds appeared in the sky that intermittently blocked the
sight of the moon.
What made the phenomenon worth watching was that the moon on
that date was the closest to the earth in 68 years or nearly 7 decades. The last supermoon before this one occurred in 1948.This
event won’t happen again until 2034. As expected, the moon reached the closest
point to the earth at about 7:21 pm or two hours and 31 minutes before going
full moon at 9:52 pm. In that evening the proximity of the moon to the earth
made it seem larger in apparent diameter than a moon seen on ordinary evenings.
A super moon can be seen 14% bigger and 30% brighter than a full moon that shows
when it is farthest to earth according to the US National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA).However, untrained eyes, most probably won’t be able to
make much distinction in size and luminosity between a supermoon and an
ordinary moon. The people in my place were glad to have seen the rare celestial
occurrence that is the supermoon.
