'Supermoon' Saturday Night: Gaze at Biggest Moon in 18 Years

Put the vagaries of politics and the Legislature and the state of the world aside Saturday night.

If clouds don't get in the way where you live, get ready for quite a sight: You'll be able to look up at the biggest full moon in nearly two decades. Read all about it.

During what some skywatchers are calling the "supermoon," the moon won't just be at its closest approach to Earth in its elliptical orbit, it will be closer than it has been in 18 years.

"It's going to be big and really bright," says NASA astronomer Dave Williams. "It should be noticeably brighter than a normal full moon."

According to NASA, full moons come in different sizes because of the elliptical shape of the moon's orbit -- one side of the ellipse is about 31,000 miles closer to Earth than the other. When the moon is closest to Earth (at its perigee), it is 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than when it's farthest from the planet (at its apogee).

Could this "supermoon" cycle be connected to natural disasters like the earthquake in Japan we've just seen? Some on the Internet are saying so. Accuweather blogger Mark Paquette said, "There were 'supermoons' in 1955, 1974, 1992 and 2005. These years had their share of extreme weather and other natural events. Is the "supermoon" and these natural occurrences a coincidence?"

Scientists nevertheless emphasize that there is no connection between the moon's position and extreme weather or natural disasters on Earth.

"There's nothing really special about this," NASA's Williams says.

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