The January Sky Is Preparing To Receive The First Giant Full Moon In 2026, Coinciding With An Exciting Astronomical Show
The January Sky Is Preparing To Receive The First Giant Full Moon In 2026, Coinciding With An Exciting Astronomical Show
The first full moon of the new year, known as the “Wolf Moon,” will appear on January 3, larger and brighter than usual, and this will be the last supermoon we will see until November 2026.
It actually concludes a series of four successive supermoons that began in October, and the phenomenon will not be repeated again until the end of 2026.
A supermoon generally occurs when the moon’s full phase coincides with its being at its closest point to Earth, known as “perigee.” During this phenomenon, the Moon can appear up to 14% larger and 30% brighter compared to a “mini-moon” when it is at its farthest and dimmest point.
If the sky is clear, you can see the giant moon throughout the night of January 2-3, depending on your geographical location. But to get the most stunning views, it is preferable to view it immediately after sunset and before sunrise.
The reason for this, according to NASA, is that the human eye realizes that the moon is larger when it is close to the horizon, even though it is the same size when it is in the middle of the sky. This is an optical illusion known as the “moon illusion.”
This giant moon is accompanied by “quadrant” meteor showers, which, according to the American Meteor Society, will peak from Friday night until Saturday morning.
Although the dark sky usually allows observing about 25 meteors per hour, this time observers will observe fewer than 10 meteors due to the strong lighting of the giant full moon in the sky on Saturday.
“The biggest obstacle to seeing a meteor shower is the full moon,” explains Mike Shanahan, planetarium director at Liberty Science Center in New Jersey.
Meteor showers occur when fast space rocks collide with the Earth’s atmosphere, burning up and leaving fiery tails behind them, a scene known as “shooting stars.”
The giant moon, like all full moons, can be seen from anywhere in the world at night if the sky is clear. In contrast, the Quadrantid shower is mainly visible from the Northern Hemisphere, and both can be viewed without the need for special equipment.
Jacqueline Benitez of the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences advises those wishing to spot meteors to head to areas far from city lights in the early evening and look for fireballs before the moon appears and its light dominates the scene. You can also try to monitor in the early hours of Sunday.
Experts advise sky watchers to give their eyes time to adjust to the darkness, and avoid looking at mobile phone screens, and then meteors will appear as fast-moving white dots across the entire sky.
It is noteworthy that meteor showers are named according to the constellation from which the meteors appear to be emanating. The Quadrantids, debris from asteroid 2003 EH1, are named after an ancient constellation that is no longer recognized today in modern astronomy.
Source: Independent
Disclaimer: This news article has been republished exactly as it appeared on its original source, without any modification. We do not take any responsibility for its content, which remains solely the responsibility of the original publisher.
Disclaimer: This news article has been republished exactly as it appeared on its original source, without any modification.
We do not take any responsibility for its content, which remains solely the responsibility of the original publisher.
Author: uaetodaynews
Published on: 2026-01-02 08:10:00
Source: uaetodaynews.com
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