You may have seen that this will be the brightest of 2025. This is technically correct, the best kind of correct.
This is because it's the closest of the year and distance is the biggest factor in how bright an object appears. This is why the International Space Station and other artificial satellites appear so much brighter when they pass directly overhead rather than lower on the horizon.
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For more on how astronomers use the inverse square law to determine how bright an object will be, and why distance plays such a big role in this article about October's supermoon.
December's full moon also earns the "super title" and is nearly as close, reaching full phase just 150 miles further away. Though technically further away, December's supermoon will appear just as brightly when we look after sunset for another reason.
This is because that 150 miles is just 0.067% the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
Lunar phases also are not day long events but instantaneous ones. The surface of the Moon is fully illuminated only for a few moments while the Sun, Earth, and Moon are lined up. The terminator, or the line between the light and dark parts of the moon, begins moving westward within moments of reaching full phase.
November's super moon will have reached full phase 9 hours earlier while December's turns full just after sunset, making for another big, beautiful lunar sight.
Supermoon viewing tips
- Look for the moon low on the eastern horizon shortly after sunset on Wednesday
- About an hour after sunset, look for Saturn about midway up the sky in the southeast
- Turn around and look to the northwest around 6:07 pm for the Chinese space station Tiangong, it will reach 33º above the northern horizon, about the same as Saturn in the south west, just before 6:11 pm before fading into Earth's shadow in the north east a minute later.
