Prepare to observe the supermoon Sunday and Monday

Stargazers will be in for a special treat Sunday night and Monday morning.

The moon will appear 30 per cent bigger and brighter than normal on Monday, Nov. 14, due to its closer proximity to the Earth.

According to NASA, the moon it will be the closest full moon to Earth since 1948.

“The moon’s orbit around Earth is slightly elliptical so sometimes it is closer and sometimes it’s farther away,” NASA said in a press release about he celestial event. “When the moon is full as it makes its closest pass to Earth it is known as a supermoon. At perigree — the point at which the moon is closest to Earth — the moon can be as much as 14 percent closer to Earth than at apogee, when the moon is farthest from our planet. The full moon appears that much larger in diameter and because it is larger shines 30 percent more moonlight onto the Earth.”

For observers in the United States and Canada the moon will appear largest Monday morning just before dawn. 

The moon will be at perigee at 6:22 a.m. EST and “opposite” the sun for the full moon at 8:52 a.m. EST (after moonset for most of the United States and Canada).

The next time the moon will appear this large will be in 2034.