January 1, 2014 presents the first of two super moons to occur in a single calendar month. The second super moon will come on January 30, 2014. We won’t have a single calendar month with two super moons again until January 2018.
What, you say? Supermoon? But the moon isn’t anywhere near full! That’s right. These aren’t full super moons. They are new super moons; the moon is at the new phase for both the January 1 and January 30 super moon.
The term super moon didn’t come from astronomy. We used to call these moons perigee new moons or perigee full moons. Perigee means “near Earth.” An astrologer, Richard Nolle, is credited with coining the term super moon. He defines them as:. . . a new or full moon which occurs with the moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth.
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