Amazing Supermoon Out Tonight!

Whatever you are doing tonight, take a break and go outside and look to the east.

An amazing supermoon is the the sky:  a HUGE full moon, far brighter and larger than normal.  I went outside and was really impressed.

Picture by Allan Jones.  The Ferry Kennewick is shown as well

Supermoons occur when a full moon occurs when the moon is much closer to earth than normal, and the moon tonight is closer than it will be for the rest of 2020. In fact, the full moon tonight will be about 17,000 miles closer to Earth and roughly 30% brighter than normal.

A nearly clear sky and lack of haze/smoke makes viewing tonight particularly good.

But the viewing fun doesn't end there.   Venus is very bright and unusually high above the western horizon.  And the sunset tonight was spectacular--you can get a taste of the view from the Seattle Space Needle PanoCam (below).  Stunning.