Beaver Moon to Be Biggest, Brightest of Year

When the moon hits your eye (like a big pizza pie?) tonight, that’s a more than likely chance to be the biggest and brightest you’ve seen in years. The fall Beaver Moon is reaching perigee. 

The celestial event is the penultimate supermoon of the year. Dubbed the Beaver Moon because it aligns with the time of the season when beavers are shoring up their dams ahead of winter, it will appear as much as 14% larger in the sky, and seem to glow 33% more brightly, than any other moon since 2019. 

The moon’s path around our planet resembles a gentle wave as much as it does a circle. The lunar sphere draws closer and then pulls away even as it revolves around us. At perigee, the moon appears much larger and brighter than it does at apogee, its farthest point from Earth. To become a “supermoon” like we’ll see this week, perigee needs to coincide with a full moon, or a time when Earth’s shadow is not blocking some or all of the moon’s Earth-facing surface from the sun’s rays.

“Depending on where you live, you may have also heard it called the Frosty Moon or Hunter’s Moon,” writes Weather.com meteorologist Caitlin Kaiser. She advises those in the Northeast, Midwest, and West to scope out the moon on Tuesday night, while those in the South should get an unimpeded view for most of the week.

The moon sits an average of 238,900 miles from Earth. This year’s Beaver Moon will swing within 221,817 miles of Earth. The February 2019 supermoon was 221,681 miles away. Next year, a “Christmas supermoon” will fill the sky on December 24, 2026, coming within 221,611 miles of Earth.   

Reflect: What’s a moment in nature that has made you stop and feel amazed?