Brightest supermoon of the year to light up Aussie skies tonight

The brightest supermoon of the year is set to light up Australian skies on Thursday night.

Thursday’s supermoon will be the third of four consecutive supermoons and is expected to be the brightest of the bunch.

The difference between a supermoon and a regular full moon is about 65,000km — a supermoon appears bigger than a regular full moon because its phase coincides with its closer orbit to the Earth, according to Time and Date.

That closer proximity is why the supermoon appears up to 17 per cent larger and up to 30 per cent brighter than a normal full moon, it said.

It also means the moon’s gravity is about 4 per cent greater, which can lead to higher-than-normal tides, informally known as king tides.

As for where the Harvest Supermoon gets its name, stargazers must look again to the Northern Hemisphere where the supermoon occurs just days out from the autumnal equinox when the harvest is traditionally honoured there.

When and how to catch the supermoon in Australia

According to NASA, the supermoon will technically occur at 10.26pm AEDT, however, the Moon will actually appear at its biggest around dusk.

As long as the sky is clear, the moon will be so bright viewers should require nothing but their eyes to witness the spectacle.

Here are the best times to catch the supermoon peak in Australia:

Brisbane — 5.56pm

Sydney — 7.10pm

Canberra — 7.20pm

Hobart — 7.36pm

Adelaide — 7.31pm

Melbourne — 6.26pm

Perth — 6.29pm

In case you miss it on Thursday, however, the moon always appears full for a few days and will be visible on Friday.

There will only be one more supermoon in 2024, on November 15.

However, because it will be a new moon, it won’t be as impressive a sight.

After that, we won’t see another supermoon until October 2025.

— With CNN