FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

Start Rolling Your Blunts: The Brightest Supermoon Since 1948 Is Tonight

Don't forget to look up at the sky on November 13 and 14.
Image: Arches National Park/Flickr

In case 2016 wasn't already a year of unusual events, the brightest and biggest supermoon in nearly 70 years will be lighting up the night sky today. Tonight's supermoon will be the brightest since 1948—you can catch it from this evening and tomorrow, November 14.

Supermoons, in which the moon looks bigger than usual and makes for fantastic photographs, occur when the moon is slightly close to the Earth than usual. Since the moon's orbit is elliptical, not circular, a supermoon occurs when the moon is in the shorter loop of the elliptical orbit while it's also a full moon, according to NASA.

Advertisement

The elliptical orbit means the moon is 30,000 miles closer to Earth while on the shorter side of the oval-shaped orbit (the shorter side is called the perigee). The longer side is called the apogee.

That pairing of a full moon with the perigee doesn't happen all that often, but two other supermoons occurred in 2016—one in October and a smaller one set for Dec. 14. It's rare to have so many supermoons in one year.

The next supermoon of this size will be Nov. 25, 2034, NASA stated.

Get six of our favorite Motherboard stories every day by signing up for our newsletter.