Home » There’s A Rare, Beautiful and Powerful Supermoon Rising

There’s A Rare, Beautiful and Powerful Supermoon Rising

The biggest, brightest super moon in 68 years will be rising on Monday 14 November 2016… but on Sunday evening, the moon was already looking fabulous at over 98.8% illuminated over South African skies (and the rest of the world!). The last time the full moon was this close to Earth was on 25 January 1948. The next […]

The biggest, brightest super moon in 68 years will be rising on Monday 14 November 2016… but on Sunday evening, the moon was already looking fabulous at over 98.8% illuminated over South African skies (and the rest of the world!).

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Photo by Andrea Ben, Johannesburg‎ – “The moon tonight in JHB! Looking forward to capturing the Super Moon tomorrow 🙂 “

The last time the full moon was this close to Earth was on 25 January 1948. The next time will be in 2034.

To be a supermoon the moon must be in its full moon phase (or invisible new moon phase) and coincide with the time in its orbit when its closest to the Earth.

The experts at NASA say that with the moon being so close, it will appear 14% larger and 30% brighter than an ‘apogee’ full moon (when it’s furtherest from Earth).

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The moon Sunday evening in Cape Town, South Africa, 13 November 2016

So for most of us, Monday night’s lunar spectacle will look like the largest moon we’ve ever seen. And according to astrologers this is a very powerful event, that if embraced optimistically, will result in positive effects!

Joburg publicist Georg Knoke says: “Amazing how la Luna has played such a big part in most of our lives! Romantic, scary, can’t sleep…

“I dealt with the South African hostages Callie and Monique Strydom when they were released from Jolo Island in the Phillipines! Their book is titled Shooting at the Moon – as the terrorists shot at the moon during an eclipse – thinking that the hostages had put a spell on them!”

shooting-the-moonThe lines from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Bad Moon Rising’ go: “I see the bad moon arising / I see trouble on the way / I see earthquakes and lightnin’ / I see those bad times today”. Interesting that New Zealand and Argentina experienced major earthquakes on Sunday BUT, according to experts, the super moon has nothing to do with the earthquakes.

Flood Kalk Bay South Africa
The Brass Bell was hit hard by massive waves caused by the Super Moon in September 2015.

NSRI (National Sea Rescue Institute) in South Africa has urged “extreme caution around the coastline between the 10th and the 18th November” as this Super Moon will have a slightly great affect on the Spring High and Low Tides with stronger rip currents.

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Kalk Bay already received big waves on Thursday 10 November, 2016

A couple more older full moon pictures that we just can’t resist sharing again…

Winter Solstice moon over Joburg, South Africa
Awesome full moon photos taken in June 2016 over Johannesburg during the winter solstice.
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Supermoon over Plettenberg Bay, South Africa, in 2014

Apparently the best time to photograph the Super Moon will be during the first two hours as it rises, still close to the horizon… but of course in South Africa we wish for a cloudy night to keep the rhino poachers – who love the bright light of the full moon – away.