Supermoon This Weekend Will Be The Year’s Biggest

Plane Flies Across The Moon (Dan Kitwood/Getty)

Are you throwing a full moon party?

This weekend, the moon will be the closest to the Earth as it will get all year long, called perigee by Astonomers.

The full moon officially occurs at 9:35 MDT on Saturday night, so it's prime time to host a 'howlingly' fun get together, hopefully we'll have clear skies over Cheyenne to enjoy all the moonshine.

Full Moon Over US Capitol February 2012 (Bill Ingalls NASA/Getty)

The 2012 May full moon falls within an hour of perigee. At perigee, the moon lies only 356,955 kilometers (221,802 miles) away. Later this month, on May 19, the moon will swing out to apogee – its farthest point for the month – at 406,448 kilometers (252,555 miles) distant. So on May 5th the moon really is at its closest.

Because the moon – as always – shines opposite the sun in our sky at full moon, you’ll see the moon beaming all night from dusk until dawn. This extra-close full moon is likely to usher in large tides along the ocean shorelines for the next several days, especially if these high tides are accompanied by strong onshore winds.

Bottom line: The full moon of May 5 (or 6), 2012 is the closest and largest full moon of this year. Some will call it a supermoon.

We'll be celebrating on 'Your Sunday Brunch' by playing some 'Moon' songs, if you have any suggestions, leave them here in the comment box.