Supermoon: The Largest Full Moon of the Year

APRIL 7  17:00 UTC

Join Gianluca Masi, Ph.D. of the Virtual Telescope Project as we look up at the skies while all around the planet we are battling Covid-19.  The Cosmos is a precious source of beauty and strength.  The night sky connects all of us where we live. You are invited to safely join our free, live webcast from the comfort of your home.  We will admire our satellite rising above the skyline of Rome, the Eternal City, enjoying the largest full moon of the year as we celebrate Global Astronomy Month, the world’s largest global celebration of astronomy. This event is part of the international happening.

To watch this event is easy, simply head to the Virtual Telescope's WebTV.

Here they are a few comments about the Supermoon by astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, PhD, founder and Director of the Virtual Telescope Project. He will guide you during the upcoming live feed!

“Supermoon is a popular term indicating a full Moon or a new Moon happening when our satellite is close to its perigee, that is its minimum distance from the Earth. The term itself is of no scientific value: astronomers prefer to call it perigee full Moon, but undoubtedly “Supermoon” is by far a much more charming name”.

“Observing the sky from the city is extremely important to rise awareness about the light pollution issue. The Supermoon offers us a great opportunity to look up and discover the sky. Showing the stunning beauty up there, feeding the desire to enjoy it more and better, understating why it is disappearing from our cities, it is possible to involve people and spontaneously promote responsible actions and behaviours in using artificial light”.

“The Supermoon will appear a bit brighter and bigger than an average full Moon, but casual stargazers will not recognize this at their first glance, these are not really obvious variations, but this adds charm to the event, a precious opportunity to admire our natural satellite in the night sky context, an increasingly overlooked and forgotten landscape.”

“The show of the full Moon (and of course of the “Supermoon”) offers its best when our satellite rises or sets, which happens at sunset and at dawn, respectively (the full Moon shines in the sky on the opposite direction respect to the Sun, so it rises at sunset and sets at dawn). During the twilight, the residual solar light scattered all around by our atmosphere allows us to admire the scenery, while the full Moon rises or falls on the horizon. At night, the full Moon is very bright, almost dazzling, compared to the darkness of the landscape. At its rise, the Moon appears behind monuments and elements of the landscape, generating the feeling that its disk is larger than usual, but this is just an optical illusion, due to the presence of those terrestrial elements on the line of sight, giving grounds for comparison."

“Seeing the full Moon, especially when “super” rising above Rome is a unique emotion: our satellite hangs above the legendary skyline of the Eternal City, with its glorious monuments, adding their magic to the experience”.

To join the Supermoon live feed, you just need to enter, at the date and time above, our webTV page here!

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