Full Flower Super Moon & Meteor Shower Illuminate Weekend Night Sky

The Full Flower Moon takes place late tomorrow evening at 11:35 p.m. EDT. Just 25 minutes later, however, the Moon will arrive at perigee, which is its closest approach to the Earth, a distance of 221,802 miles away. Since this month's perigee is the closest of any in 2012, tomorrow's Full Moon will seem even bigger and brighter than usual, resulting in a stunning sight known as a Supermoon.

As a result, the Moon will appear about 16 percent brighter than the average Full Moon. It will also be accompanied by unusually high and low tides this weekend and into the new week. The Supermoon may make it difficult to witness the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, which occurs when the Earth passes through the debris from Halley's Comet. The meteor shower begins tomorrow evening and lasts until the early morning hours Sunday.

In most areas, flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. That’s how the Full Moon in May became known as the Flower Moon. Other names include the Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon. Full Moon names date back to Native Americans in what is now the Northern and Eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring Full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred.

A Full Moon rises at about the same time the Sun is setting. Since the length of daylight continues to grow each day through the Summer Solstice, a Full Moon will rise later and set earlier in May and June. In addition, the Full Moon will appear lower in the sky since it won’t be visible nearly as long as during the long Winter nights. That’s because the Full Moon is a lunar phase which occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun.

For example, the Moon rises at 6:27 this evening, nearly an hour-and-a-half before the 7:53 sunset, and it sets at 5:05 tomorrow morning, 40 minutes before the 5:45 sunrise. Conversely, in November, when the length of daylight continues to dwindle, the Full Beaver Moon will appear higher in the sky and be visible for about 16 hours. Although there will be some patchy clouds around, we should enjoy a fairly good view of this weekend's Supermoon.

Paul