The Moon will be the main character of the night sky in mid-October. Of the 12 full moons visible in the celestial sphere for a year, one every 28 days, the full Moon that will appear over the sky at nightfall on October 17 will be the closest to Earth. This is a supermoon, as the coincidence between two distinct moments is commonly known: the perigee – the point at which the lunar orbit, which describes an ellipse around the Earth, is closest to our planet – and the Moon in its full phase. This phenomenon, which usually occurs two to four times a year, results in a Moon that appears slightly larger and brighter than the average full moon to the terrestrial observer.
Although the term supermoon does not describe a precise concept, its recent use by institutions such as the Royal Astronomical Observatory Greenwich or NASA itself divides opinion within the scientific community, between those who consider it a sensible adjective and those who share this name and the rest of those received by the Moon each month for scattering purposes. The US space agency, for example, refers to this full moon as the Hunter’s Moon, a name that refers to the climatic conditions faced by the Native Americans who settled in what is now the northeastern United States at this time of the year the end of the harvest, was the fields free of crops and the light that accompanied the first full moon of autumn provided an additional opportunity to grab prey.
When to see the October supermoon from Mexico?
About 357,000 kilometers away from Earth, in contrast to the 384,400 kilometers that separate the two stars, the October Moon, the first of autumn in the northern hemisphere, will appear on the horizon after 6:30 pm (Mexico time) to begin a tour of the celestial dome that will last until dawn, when it disappears over the horizon shortly after 7:30 am.
As with all full Moons, the best time to take photos and capture video will be immediately after it appears over the sky, when the visual effect is enhanced by ground objects such as buildings, trees, mountains or bridges the apparent size of our natural satellite. It’s also the perfect time to capture the subtle ocher tones caused by Rayleigh scattering, the same optical phenomenon that makes the Sun appear orange at sunrise and sunset, the closer it gets to the horizon. The Moon will continue its path and reach the zenith, the highest point of the celestial sphere, at 00:30 hours.
This full moon marks the beginning of the peak moment of the year for night sky viewing, when the rain begins to subside and the clear skies with longer nights grow longer: behind their westward path, Jupiter and Mars parading, visible. during the rest of the morning and until dawn. Also the constellation of Orion, one of the main protagonists of the time because of the number of deep space objects that can be seen with binoculars or a simple telescope.