Supermoon will be a big beauty if skies clear

SKY WATCHING — November’s full moon is not only a supermoon — which looks larger to skywatchers than a regular full moon — it will be the closest full moon to Earth since January 1948.

NASA says earthlings won’t see a full moon this large again until Nov. 25, 2034.

The full moon officially happens Monday at 5:52 a.m. in Spokane. The moon will set about an hour later, just before the sunrise at 6:54 a.m.

The supermoon will still look huge, around 221,525 miles away, when it rises Monday evening at 4:57 p.m.

• The Naval Observatory provides rise and set times for the moon and sun .

The reason the moon looks larger or smaller at some periods through the is because the moon’s orbit around Earth is elliptical — the moon can be closer or farther from the Earth’s surface depending on where it is in its orbit.  The point when our lunar companion is closest to Earth is called perigee.  Apogee is the opposite—when the moon is at its farthest point from Earth.

Supermoons have an impact on coasts and bays by increasing high tides.

The next perigee full moon occurs Dec. 1, the third such moon in an October-November-December lunar trifecta.

After that, look for a perigee full moon on Jan. 1-2, 2018, when the moon and the Earth will be 221,559 miles apart.