Final Supermoon Of The Year Aligns With Leonid Meteor Shower This Weekend

Skygazers across the world better be ready to catch this week's supermoon. The next one won't come around for a bit. But on Thursday, the fourth and last supermoon of the year will pass within roughly 225,000 miles of Earth, appearing larger and brighter than usual. It will take until Friday to attain its full lunar phase. While seeing a supermoon in itself is a delight, the Leonid meteor shower could make for a dazzling bonus as it reaches its peak on Saturday night and into early Sunday, reported CNN quoting the American Meteor Society.

The full moon in November is referred to as "the beaver moon," a reference to the start of the animal's hibernating season. The upcoming full moon will reach the summit of its full phase on Friday at 4:29 pm Eastern Time. However, it will be visible to the naked eye as full one day prior to and after its peak, said Noah Petro, chief of NASA's Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Laboratory.

Petro said, “There is a moment in time when the moon is at its fullest, but if it's cloudy or you're busy, going out any other time either a day before, later in the evening or the following day you will still see the beauty that is the full moon.”

A supermoon, more of a popular word than a scientific one, happens when a full lunar phase coincides with an exceptionally close orbit around the Earth. This phenomenon occurs only three or four times a year and consecutively because of the moon's ever-changing oval orbit.

The full moon in November will be a little further away than the one in October, which was the closest moon of 2024 and was photographed worldwide.

If local weather conditions allow, the beaver moon will be visible to those in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. They may even be able to witness a Leonid meteor burning brightly in the night sky.