This supermoon “festival” isn’t the end of the festivities, with a total lunar eclipse \u2014 also known as a blood moon \u2014 visible from all of Australia in March 2026.<\/p>\n
Here’s what you can expect from this festival of supermoons, the best times to see them, and what causes multiple supermoons in a row.<\/p>\n
When can I best see the harvest supermoon?<\/p>\n
The Moon will look its fullest on the night of Tuesday, October 7.<\/p>\n
But if you happen to miss it, don’t stress. While it won’t be perfectly full, the Moon will still be spectacular on Wednesday, on October 8 when it is closest to Earth this month.<\/p>\n
I took this photo of the Milky Way with my phone \u2014 and you could too<\/a><\/p>\n Smartphones are now advanced enough to take photos that were once only possible using bulky cameras.<\/p>\n Unlike most astronomical phenomenon, the supermoon will be extremely easy to see in the night sky \u2014 as long as it’s not overcast.<\/p>\n It will rise at sunset in the eastern sky, and will be in the sky all night before setting in the west at sunrise.<\/p>\n While it will be big and bright all night, an illusion called the “Moon illusion” causes the Moon to look its biggest just after dusk, when it is low on the horizon.<\/p>\n What makes a moon a supermoon?<\/p>\n A supermoon is a full or a new moon that coincides closely with the Moon’s closest point to Earth.<\/p>\n While a supermoon is not an astronomical term, a full (or new) moon is considered by some to be a supermoon if it is within 90 per cent of its closest approach to Earth. This is known as its “perigee”.<\/p>\n Others say a full (or new moon) must also happen within about 24 hours of reaching perigee to be considered a supermoon.<\/p>\n Because the Moon’s orbit is slightly egg-shaped, there are points along its orbit which bring it closer to or further from Earth.<\/p>\n The Moon’s closest approach is to Earth is 356,355 kilometres.<\/p>\n In comparison, when the Moon is furthest away, this is known as its “apogee”, and it’s 406,725 km from Earth.<\/p>\n While the difference in brightness and size looks stark when put together, it is harder to see when just looking at the Moon in the sky.\u00a0 (Supplied: NASA\/JPL\/Caltech)<\/p>\n The harvest supermoon will be 359,818km from Earth and occur within 24 hours of the full Moon (the exact time when the Moon, Earth and Sun line up) at 2.49pm AEDT October 7.<\/p>\n It won’t be the closest supermoon of the season, though \u2014 that will be next month’s supermoon.<\/p>\n In reality, it’s hard to see much difference between a supermoon and a regular full moon.<\/p>\n But if you keep track of your moons throughout the year, you might notice the difference between a supermoon and a micro-moon (when a full moon is furthest from Earth).<\/p>\n Between the biggest supermoon and the smallest micro-moon there is a 14 per cent difference in size, and 30 per cent difference in brightness.<\/p>\n “[That] sounds like a big difference in brightness, but our eyes are not very sensitive to small variations in light,” Jonti Horner, an astronomer at the University of Southern Queensland, says.<\/p>\n “It would be obvious if you put the two next to each other \u2026 but it’s not a wow, leap-out-of-your-seats type thing.”<\/p>\n When are the next supermoons?November 5 \u2014 356,818km (full moon occurs at 12.20am AEDT November 6)December 4 \u2014 356,961km (full moon occurs at 10am AEDT December 5)<\/p>\n Some people may also class the January 3, 2026 full moon as a supermoon, but this occurs a full two days after it reaches its closest distance to Earth of 360,347km on January 1.<\/p>\n We won’t get another super full moon until November 25, 2026.<\/p>\n Why are there multiple supermoons in a row?<\/p>\n While having so many super full moons in a row might seem like a coincidence, it is completely normal, Professor Horner says.<\/p>\n “When the full moon is closest to the Earth, the full moon before and the full moon after \u2026 are still a fair bit closer to the Earth than average,” Professor Horner says.<\/p>\n “Typically you will get a series of supermoons in a row.”<\/p>\n Every 29 days or so, the Moon goes round its slightly egg-shaped orbit around the Earth, hitting the closest and furthest distance from Earth along the way.<\/p>\n But a full moon requires the Sun, Earth and Moon to all line up in a row, which does not always hit at a point where the Moon is the closest distance to Earth.<\/p>\n The movement of the Earth, Sun and Moon create a wave-like pattern of full moon distances.\u00a0 (Wikimedia: Moon distance with full & new<\/a>\/Lasunncty<\/a>\/CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>\/edited by ABC Science)<\/p>\n But in the time it takes the Moon completely orbit the Earth, the Earth has only moved a small way on its path around the Sun. This means that the conditions for a supermoon can line up again and again over a few months before the trio move too far out of alignment. \u00a0<\/p>\n Then, as Earth’s orbit moves, the full moon begins to sit at a different spot in the orbit, until eventually the full moon is a micro-moon, or the furthest from Earth.<\/p>\n This wave-like pattern repeats approximately once a year.<\/p>\n Do supermoons affect spring tides?<\/p>\n Supermoons do affect our oceans in small ways.<\/p>\n While the supermoon might look big in person, it can still look small on phone cameras. \u00a0 (702 ABC Sydney: Brenton)<\/p>\n While the Moon always influences our tides, the closer the Moon, the bigger the tides.<\/p>\n This is known as perigean spring tides, or, colloquially, king tides.<\/p>\n The name “spring tide” has nothing to do with the season, but the phenomenon of rising higher \u2014 or springing forward \u2014 as a result of the gravitational pull from the Moon.<\/p>\n Why is it called a harvest supermoon?<\/p>\n While the full moon closest to the September equinox is sometimes called the harvest moon, this doesn’t really have anything to do with the Moon itself.<\/p>\n It’s one of many names for the different full moons taken from a US book called the Old Farmer’s Almanac<\/a> that reflect seasonal changes in the Northern Hemisphere (in this case, the full moon that occurs closest to the beginning autumn, marked by the equinox, in the north).<\/p>\n Other cultures also celebrate the Moon at this time of year. Chinese and some south-east Asian cultures have just marked the Mid-Autumn Festival.<\/p>\n Mooncakes are one of the main treats made to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.\u00a0 (Supplied: Darren Chan)<\/p>\n In China, the event is a harvest festival based on the legend of the moon goddess in Chinese mythology, Chang’e.<\/p>\n It falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, which doesn’t always line up exactly with the full moon but is close to it in September or October.<\/p>\n The Moon has also been celebrated and has been an important part of cultural practice for thousands of years in many other places around the world, including in Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n What else is coming up?<\/p>\n If the supermoon isn’t your cup of tea, there will be a number of other interesting astronomical phenomenon coming up in the next few months.<\/p>\n According to Professor Horner, if you’re “underwhelmed by the supermoon”, a total lunar eclipse coming in early March is much more likely to impress.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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