Skygazers alert! Harvest Supermoon, the last this year, rises Thursday. Here's when to look up

The final Supermoon of 2023, September's full moon, also called Harvest Moon, will begin to rise this Thursday (Sept 28). It is the fourth supermoon of this year and will mark the end of a summer that saw more than onesupermoon.

The run of the four consecutive Supermoons began on July 3 with a Full Buck Moon, followed by two Supermoons in August, the Full Sturgeon Moon and the Flue Blue Moon on August1 and August30, respectively.

What is a Supermoon?

The Supermoon phenomenon occurs when the moon is at its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, known as perigee. This happens due to the moon's orbit being an ellipse rather than a perfect circle, resulting in varying distances from the Earth at different times.

According to NASA, the moon will reach the stage of perigee in the evening of Wednesday (Sept 27) around 09:06 pm EDT (6:36 am IST), two days before the Harvest Supermoon.

A retired NASA astrophysist Fred Espanak said that by the time the moon's fully illuminated face is towards Earth, it will be around 361,552 km away from the planet. Themoon's average distance from the Earthnormally stands at 382,900 km.

When and where to see the Harvest Supermoon?

The Harvest Supermoon will rise between Thursday (Sept 28) night and Friday (Sept 29) morning this week.

The fully illuminated moon in New York City will rise around 6:33 pm EDT (04:03 am IST).

Enthusiasts can go outside and look up at the sky, NASA said. The space agency also provided details on how to placetelescopes or binoculars to get the best view.

A planetary parade is also on the cards

Skygazers will also witness a joined parade of three planets - Jupiter, Saturn and the smallest planet in the solar system Mercury - around the same time.

The first planet to visit the final Supermoon will be Saturn on Saturday (Sept 30), which will rise around 5:18 pm EDT (2:48 am IST). Furthermore, Saturn's fellow planet, the largest planet Jupiter will rise at 8:17 pm EDT (5:47 am IST) and will sit left to the Aries constellation. Lastly, Mercury will be the toughest to spot. The planet will rise around 5:30 am EDT (3:00 pm IST).

This celestial event marks the end of the lunar extravaganza for 2023. If you fail to catch a glimpse of the majesticHarvest Supermoon this year, you'll will have to wait a while as the next will occur on 14 September 2024.

(With inputs from agencies)

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