This Friday, astronomers and stargazers will get the opportunity to watch the second supermoon of the year.
2014 has five supermoon events and the first one occurred on 1 January. The second celestial treat, also called Black Moon, will take place on 31 January.
"The January supermoon won't be a full moon. It's a new moon. Some are calling it a Black Moon, but that name doesn't come from astronomy," reported Earth Sky.
The reasons why it is called a Black Moon is because it is the second of two new moons in a month, according to Earthsky.org.
The celestial phenomenon will take place on Friday. The phenomenon is known as a perigree full or perigree new moon, which means the moon will appear as much as 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than a normal day.
"So, the moon may seem bigger although the difference in its distance from Earth is only a few per cent at such times," Dr. James Garvin, a chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre, explained the phenomenon."It is called a supermoon because this is a very noticeable alignment that at first glance would seem to have an effect. The 'super' in supermoon is really just the appearance of being closer."
"While normal supermoons are visible and sometimes appear bigger than usual-especially when they're on or close to the horizon-the supermoon on January may not be visible, even though the moon will be the second-closest to Earth this year," The Epoch Times reported.
According to reports, the Friday supermoon will be visible at 3.30 pm.
Apart from the two new moons of January, there will be three full moons that will occur in July, August and September. The next celestial phenomenon will take place on 12 July, followed by 10 August and 9 September.
