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Today – ‘Supermoon’ and partial lunar eclipse; tomorrow – Transit of Venus
photo: Jim Champion (geograph.org.uk)
Last month’s supermoon – or perigee moon – will be repeated, but this time with a partial lunar eclipse, causing the exceptionally large moon to have a bite-shaped shadow of the Earth.
Today, Monday the 4th of June, the Earth, full moon and sun will be lined up to create a lunar eclipse, which will be viewable in most of North and South America before sunrise. Those in the Pacific region should be able to see it after sunset.
This month’s perigee moon is not as extreme as last month’s (16% bigger and 30% brighter than normal), appearing only about 5% larger than normal.
Read more about today’s phenomenon in National Geographic.
On Tuesday (tomorrow) the astronomical phenomena continues with a Transit of Venus. For 6 hours Venus (normally only visible at night) will move between the Earth and the sun – a very rare event.
From WFSU.org:
Instead of seeing Venus as the brightest object in the night sky, you see Venus as a tiny black dot crossing the burning disc of the sun. I think we will be the last living people to see one because the next one is going to be in 2117.
–Andrea Wulf, author of Chasing Venus
How’s that for a pair of days, stargazers?
Tags: partial lunar eclipse, perigee moon, supermoon, transit of venus
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