Sunday and Monday’s full moon will be a supermoon show

We live in a time of superlatives.

Game 7 was the best. The election is the hugest.

And the coming full moon on Sunday and Monday will be super. In fact, the superest.

Assuming no clouds, it should appear bigger and brighter.

The moon orbits the Earth on an ellipse, bringing it periodically closer. The closest point is called the perigee. At these times, our satellite is just 221,524 miles or so away.

This coming perigee will coincide with a full moon, called the Beaver Moon. That is not so unusual, but this will be the closest full moon so far in this young century.

In fact, the last time it was this full and this close, Harry S. Truman was in the White House and the calendar said 1948. The moon will not be this full and this close to Earth again until November 2034. Who will be president then?

There was also a supermoon in October, and there will be another one in December. But this supermoon is supposed to be extra super because the time that the moon is closest will coincide more precisely with the time it is fullest.

“There are three full moons in 2016 that meet the definition of a supermoon — October, November and December,” according to earthysky.org. “But this November 14 full moon is the most super of the supermoons!”

The effect will be most noticeable when the moon is near the horizon, as the backdrop to some familiar building or tree. The effect may not be as apparent when the moon is high in the sky.

Technically, the moon will be at its fullest before dawn Monday in the Central time zone.

According to sciencealert.com, the optimal time to view the supermoon will be Sunday night to Monday morning. But it will still be pretty super Monday night.

This story was originally published November 6, 2016 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Sunday and Monday’s full moon will be a supermoon show."