May's full moon takes its name from the bounty of flowering of plants visible at this time of year.
But this year's full moon is also a supermoon, meaning it appears marginally larger than the average full moon.
This month's supermoon is the fourth and final of the year, and will be slightly less bright and not quite as close as the April and March supermoons. Though, as astronomers have pointed out, the difference in a supermoon and a full moon is so slight, it is not necessarily perceptible to the naked eye at the best of times.
The best time to watch is the night of May 6-7, when it will reach its fullest at 6:45 a.m. EDT Thursday morning. By this time, the Moon will have set on the east coast but remain visible to those on the west coast, where it will be 3:45 a.m. PDT. However, if it happens to be cloudy where you are, Fienberg's advice is to try again the following night.
"It's especially fun to look at the full Moon as it's rising or setting. Then you experience the 'moon illusion,' where the Moon looks bigger closer to the horizon than higher in the sky—where it's actually a little bit closer to the observer and should therefore appear bigger," said Fienberg.Bloomer's top tip is to make your surroundings as dark as possible.
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