The supermoon of 19 February is the closest full Moon of the year and we’ll not see one larger until Christmas Eve 2026.
If your sky is clear at dusk on 19 February be sure to take a good look at the full Moon rising in the constellation of Leo. If it seems a bit bigger than usual then it’s due to more than just the lunar illusion, for this full Moon is the largest that you’ll see all year.
The Moon’s orbit around Earth is slightly elliptical so sometimes it is closer and sometimes it’s farther away. When the Moon is full as it makes its closest pass to Earth it is known as a supermoon. At perigree — the point at which the moon is closest to Earth — the Moon can be as much as 14 percent closer to Earth than at apogee, when the Moon is farthest from our planet. The full Moon appears that much larger in diameter and because it is larger shines 30 percent more moonlight onto the Earth.
The Moon’s orbit is far from circular and its distance from Earth at closest approach, termed perigee, varies each lunar month. Tuesday, 19 February at 9:09 UT (9:09am GMT) sees the closest perigee of 2019 when the distance between centres of Earth and Moon is 356,763 kilometres. And the Moon won’t get any nearer Earth until 21 January 2023. Yet even this record will be surpassed by the 356,447-kilometre perigee of 6 December 2052 – the closest of the century.
https://astronomynow.com/2019/02/15/dont-miss-the-...
Watch the supermoon live courtesy of the Virtual Telescope Project