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6h ago

Wolf Supermoon Peaks Early Saturday at 5:03 a.m. EST

A close pass at perigee near Earth’s perihelion creates an unusually bright full moon.

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A supermoon rising above the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2021.
Jupiter reaches opposition this month, looking its best, while the motions of its moons are fascinating to watch. This 2020 Hubble image shows Jupiter and its icy moon Europa. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M. H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team
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Overview

  • Peak illumination occurs at 10:03 GMT (5:03 a.m. EST) on Jan. 3, with the Moon appearing full from Jan. 2–3 and best viewed at evening moonrise.
  • In India, the most striking views are at moonrise around 5:45–6:00 p.m. IST on Jan. 3, even though the full phase begins earlier in the afternoon.
  • At roughly 362,000–362,641 km from Earth, the Moon will look up to about 14% larger and around 30% brighter than a micromoon, according to NASA.
  • Moonlight will wash out many Quadrantid meteors during their Jan. 2–4 peak, though some bright fireballs may still be visible under clear skies.
  • This is the fourth consecutive supermoon and the first of three in 2026, with the next supermoons expected in November and December.