Supermoon and comet visible in the evening sky on Thursday evening
Published: Wednesday, Oct 16th 2024, 12:10
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The comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas and a supermoon can be spotted in the Swiss night sky on Thursday. The chances are greatest in the Bernese Oberland, central, eastern and north-eastern Switzerland.
At the beginning of the night, the cloud cover in these regions will still be patchy, said Marco Stoll from the forecasting service of the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss) at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. Clouds are expected to cover the sky from the west during the evening. Therefore, the chances of seeing the comet and the rising full moon are best immediately after sunset.
However, the sky will not be completely cloudless anywhere, but will be dotted with isolated patches of cloud, so a bit of luck will still be needed, it added. On the southern side of the Alps, there will be compact clouds and persistent precipitation in places. It will not be possible to see the astronomical phenomena here.
According to Stoll, the clouds in western and north-western Switzerland are not looking good either. However, the highly luminous moon could also be partially visible through the clouds. However, the rather weak luminosity of the comet would not be sufficient to see it through the clouds.
Full moon causes extreme tides
According to astronomers, the actual full moon will be reached during the day on Thursday at 1.26 pm. On this day, the Earth's satellite will come within 357,174 kilometers of its planet. For comparison: if it is particularly far away, the distance can be 406,000 kilometers.
In general, the moon appears particularly powerful when it is low - and not high in the sky. This "moon illusion" or "lunar illusion" is due to the fact that viewers place it in relation to earthly objects on the horizon, such as mountains, trees or buildings, explains Pilz.
The coincidence of the full moon and the earth's proximity leads to extreme tides such as spring tides - because the sun, moon and earth are aligned. Any autumn storms can intensify this effect.
The comet Tsuchinshan Atlas was discovered at the beginning of 2023. The name comes from the telescopes in China and South Africa that first spotted it. It is one of the non-periodic comets that only come close to Earth again after a long period of time, if at all. The comet originates from the Oort Cloud, a spherical collection of objects at the outermost edge of the solar system.
©Keystone/SDA
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