LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Mark your calendars – on Sept. 27 a total eclipse of a supermoon will occur.
This is a rare event you do not want to miss.
What’s a supermoon? It is a full moon when the moon is closest to the Earth.
The moon’s orbit around the Earth is elliptical. When it is the furthest from Earth it is at apogee. Perigee is when it is closest.
A supermoon occurs at perigee, and can appear to be up to 30-percent brighter and 14-percent bigger than your run-of-the-mill full moon.
What makes September’s supermoon spectacular is the total eclipse. The eclipse begins at 6 p.m. and ends at 9:30 p.m.
In Lake County, the supermoon will rise at 7:50 p.m.
This is a rare event. The last eclipse of a supermoon happened in 1982. It won’t happen again until 2033.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon is in the Earth’s shadow.
While waiting for the supermoon at the end of September, the rest of the month can be spent admiring the Milky Way.
It is directly overhead, running north and south through the constellations Cygnus and Aquila.
The Milky Way looks like a large cloud. In reality it is made up of millions of stars.
When you look at the Milky Way, you are looking toward the center of our galaxy.
We believe our galaxy looks like our nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy.
John Zimmerman is a resident of Lake County and has been an amateur astronomer for over 50 years. For more information about astronomy and local resources, visit his Web site at www.lakecountyskies.com .