Supermoon lights up UAE sky: Watch the webcast here

Bigger, brighter, bolder – the moon was all this and more last night, because it was be the Solstice Supermoon night, the brightest for 2013. If you missed it, this is where you can catch the Nasa webcast. 

Editor’s Note: Share your best #supermoon photos with news@emirates247.com and we just might include the most interesting ones in the Emirates247.com News in Images section.

Yesterday, had you looked up at the full moon, you would have noticed that it was a bit more striking than usual. On June 23, the full moon was the closest and largest full moon of the year 2013. It was the moon’s closest encounter with Earth for all of 2013. The moon will not be so close again until August 10, 2014.

As a result, it appeared 8 per cent larger and 17 per cent brighter than usual – an event widely known as a supermoon. In fact, yesterday’s moon was 14 per cent larger in size compared with the smallest full moon of the year (that’ll be on August 20 in 2013).

According to TimeAndDate.com, the full moon rise in Dubai began at 15:33 hours on June 23, 2013, although many could spot the moon with naked eyes only after 19:09, the estimated time for moon rise in the emirates of Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain.

The estimated moon rise time in capital Abu Dhabi was 19:12, while in Ras Al Khaimah it was 19.08 and in Fujairah, it was 19:05, the earliest among the UAE emirates.

This year’s supermoon was a little more special than usual in that it almost coincided with the summer solstice (June 21, the longest day of the year).

Armchair astronomers could catch the sky show virtually via a live high-definition webcast of the supermoon through a number of online telescopes across the world.

While it definitely made for quite a spectacle, there also have been scientifically unconfirmed reports and rumours about the supermoon causing natural disasters, and there have been some text messages claiming that the recent Indian floods have been a precursor of the June 23 supermoon. Scientists have rejected these claims.

Myth of the Supermoon

The term ‘supermoon’ was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, arbitrarily defined as: ...a new or full moon which occurs with the Moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee). In short, Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth. (Source: Wikipedia).

Incidentally, the astronomical community doesn’t refer to it as a ‘supermoon’ but as perigee-syzygy or perigee moon. If you are an astronomer, you’d know that perigee is the point at which the moon is closest in its orbit to the earth, and syzygy is a full or new moon, when the earth, the moon and the sun are aligned.

According to SkyAndTelescope.com, this weekend’s supermoon will also bring the largest tides of 2013, because a closer moon exerts a stronger gravitational pull, creating more variation between the tides. However, this variation is hardly enough to account for massive earthquakes, flooding, or volcanic eruptions.

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