It’s called the “supermoon,” but it’s really another full moon that just happened to arrive on January 1, although at its closest point to Earth in an orbit. So Monday evening, the moon reached an extreme perigee distance of 221,559 miles. Compared with when it is positioned at its average distance from Earth, the supermoon is about 7.3 percent brighter than normal. Of course, it looked pretty super Tuesday morning as it was about to set behind the Allegheny Mountains to the west while the sun peaked over the Blue Ridge and cast an early glow on the Botetourt County Courthouse in Fincastle.
Photo by Ed McCoy
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