Look up this weekend for a celestial double feature

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November’s full moon, otherwise known as the beaver moon, shone bright in the sky on Friday as the last supermoon of the year.

For sky-gazers observing the golden orb this weekend, the Leonid meteor shower could make for a dazzling bonus feature as it reaches its peak on Saturday night into early Sunday, according to the American Meteor Society.

The beaver moon — named as a nod to that animal’s hibernation and thicker coats this time of year — reached the crest of its full phase at 4:29 p.m. ET Friday, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. But the moon appears full to the naked eye about a day before and after its peak, said Noah Petro, chief of NASA’s Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Laboratory.

“There is a moment in time when the moon is 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,” Petro said.

A supermoon occurs when the moon’s full phase coincides with its perigee, its closest approach to Earth in its orbit, according to NASA, making the moon appear slightly bigger and brighter than on average.

November’s full moon is the fourth consecutive supermoon this year and slightly farther away than October’s full moon, which was the closest moon of 2024 and was captured in photos all over the world.

But the beaver moon could still offer a distinct sight to behold. Petro recommends viewing the moon while it is rising for a chance to see a “moon illusion” as it climbs above the horizon, where the supermoon could look even bigger than usual.

Scientists don’t really know why this optical illusion happens, but it’s believed to result from a combination of how our brain processes visual information and the moon’s size in comparison with smaller objects near the horizon, such as trees or the roofs of houses.

In addition to observations from Earth, current space missions such as NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been collecting data on the moon since 2009, help enhance our understanding of the moon, Petro said.

“We’re still mapping the moon. We’re still uncovering its secrets,” he said. “So when people go out and look at the moon, know that you’re looking not just at a wonderful object in the night sky, but that somewhere orbiting around it is this small spacecraft that is staging our view of the moon and its history.”

Local weather conditions allowing, those in the Northern and Southern hemispheres viewing the moon this weekend could also spot a meteor from the Leonids blazing bright in the night sky.

How to view the Leonids

The Leonid meteor shower tends to produce 15 meteors per hour during its peak, but because of the moon’s full luminosity that will impede visibility of fainter meteors, viewing conditions may offer up only around five meteors per hour this weekend, said Robert Lunsford, the fireball report coordinator for the American Meteor Society.

For patient sky-gazers looking to spy a meteor, Lunsford recommends facing east with the moon out of your field of view.

“Look half-way up in the sky as most of the meteors will appear in the lower half of the sky,” Lunsford said in an email. “View as late as possible as more Leonids will be seen prior to dawn than near midnight.”

For amateur astronomers who want to get involved with data collecting on space objects, Lunsford pointed to online fireball report forms that can help scientists study meteor shower activity, such as the one from the International Meteor Organization.

“From these reports astronomers get a better idea of when the Earth encounters these meteors and the strength of this activity,” he added. “This allows them to produce more accurate predictions for future Leonid showers.”

Upcoming celestial events

The last full moon of 2024 will be the cold moon on December 15, according to the Farmers’ Almanac.

The Leonids will be seen blazing in the night sky until the shower’s finality on December 2, according to the American Meteor Society. If you are eager to see more, two upcoming meteor showers peak next month:

Geminids: December 12-13

Ursids: December 21-22

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