(Image credits: Truman Photo: Edmonston Studio, Wikimedia Commons; LP Image: Shutterstock; Moon Landing: Photo by NASA/Newsmakers; Beaver vector: Freepik) (Moon Image: LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images)

Supermoon: Fact vs. Fiction

We’ve just had the largest full Moon in 68 years. Here’s what was — and wasn’t — true.

“For most people, we often marvel at the beauty of a sunrise or the magnificence of a full moon, but it is impossible to fathom the magnitude of the universe that surrounds us.” -Richard H. Baker

This Nov. 14, the full Moon will light up the night sky, brighter and larger than it’s been at any time as viewed from Earth since 1948. This most super of Supermoons is a sight to behold, but fortunately an easy one for anyone with clear, cloudless skies. The science behind it is simple and compelling, but there’s also a tremendous amount of misinformation out there about it. Let’s help you separate fact from fiction about the Supermoon, and just maybe the extra knowledge will help you enjoy it all that much more.

The Moon’s orbit isn’t a perfect circle, but an ellipse. When perigee coincides (or nearly coincides) with fullness, we achieve a Supermoon. (Image credit: Brian Koberlein)

Fact: A Supermoon occurs because the Moon moves in an ellipse, not a circle, around the Earth. At its closest, or perigee, the Moon can get as close as 356,375 km to Earth, which is more than 50,000 km closer than its farthest (apogee) point, which can be as far as 406,720 km away. As the Earth orbits the Sun, the ellipse barely rotates at all, meaning that we get a full Moon closest to…