'Supermoon': lunar close pass brings hard-to-spot spectacle
Annual nearest orbit of Earth will give rise to 'supermoon' that appears 14% larger than normalThe biggest and brightest moon of the year will be seen on Saturday night as it passes closer to the Earth than usual.Saturday's event is a "supermoon", the closest and therefore the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. The moon will come within about 221,802 miles (357,000km) of Earth, which is about 15,300 miles closer than average.It will make the moon appear 14% larger than it is when farthest away, said Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory. The difference in appearance is so small that "you'd be very hard-pressed to detect that with the unaided eye", he said.The moon's distance from Earth varies because it follows an elliptical orbit rather than a circular one.Like any full moon, the supermoon will look bigger when it's on or near the horizon rather than higher...
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