Italy: Keep an eye on the sky for the strawberry supermoon

Rome: It’s the second Supermoon of the year. We will have actually seen four in a row between spring and summer of 2022.

The one on 14 June is the last one before the summer solstice. In the culture of the ancient peoples of North America it was named the Strawberry Moon because it coincided with the time of strawberry picking.

In European traditions, it coincides instead with mead, a drink that comes from the fermentation of honey that was given to couples in their first month of marriage.

The planet on this day will be 363808 km away from Earth. In the alignment between the sun, earth and moon, the moon appears larger and brighter than usual. This is why it is called Supermoon, or more correctly Full Moon at Perigee. The next ones are 13 July, the one called the Deer Moon, and 12 August called the Sturgeon Moon.

“The Supermoon will appear about 7 percent larger and a little brighter than average, but only an experienced observer would be able to tell,” explained Gianluca Masi, astrophysicist, science manager of the Virtual Telescope Project.

“These are not exactly striking variations, but they nonetheless add fascination to the event, which is a valuable opportunity to admire our natural satellite in the context of the night sky, an increasingly neglected and forgotten landscape.”The Supermoon’s moments of greatest visibility are at the moon’s rising and setting, at dusk and dawn.

“During twilight, residual sunlight allows us to admire the earth’s landscape as the full moon rises or sets over the horizon. At night its light is very intense, almost dazzling, compared to the very discreet light of the landscape. As it rises or sets, the moon is projected behind buildings and landscape elements, generating the feeling that its disk is larger, but this is only an optical illusion, due precisely to the presence in the field of view in terms of comparison.”