Supermoon, 2014 | Photo: Carl, some rights reserved
On November 12 and 13, the Moon will be full and near its perigee, or its closest orbital approach to Planet Earth, a combination that has recently entered public awareness as a supermoon. During a supermoon the full moon appears slightly larger than usual: at its closest approach to Earth, the full moon looks around seven percent wider than average.
Sound anticlimactic? It is, a little. But the term Slightly Larger Than Average Moon probably wouldn't generate as many page views for the astrology sites that came up with the term.
That's right: the Supermoon idea originated among astrologers, not astronomers. As astrologer Richard Nolle originally coined it in 1979, the term Supermoon originally meant either a full or a new moon at its closest approach to Earth. If you asked an astronomer to come up with a term for that set of conditions, she'd probably call it something long the lines of perigee-syzygy. Perigee as we said above, is the Moon's closest approach to Earth; syzygy is when three or more astronomical objects are roughly lined up, which happens during every full or new moon.
Aside from eclipses of either the sun or moon, which happen only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are in syzygy, or transits of the sun, when another planet lines up between the Earth and Sun, astronomers generally only get excited about syzygy when they have an opportunity to use it in Scrabble, especially if a triple word score tile is involved. In astrology, contrariwise, a supermoon is apparently a big deal.
But you don't have to care about astrology to appreciate a bigger-than-usual full moon. All you need is a good place to park yourself on the Earth's surface.
--
--
Moderately good vision is a plus, of course, and you can boost whatever vision you have with lenses, ranging from army surplus binoculars to telescopes with price tags as astronomical as the heavenly bodies at which you point them.
We've taken care of the first part for you, with our list of 64 southern California stargazing sites. Use the map to find a site close to you, check out our listing for the site, and see if it might not be a worthwhile place for supermoon viewing.
Once you get there, you may find you have even the most popular stargazing sites all to yourself. A big bright full moon interferes with viewing other heavenly bodies, just by washing out the sky a little. But you might find yourself joining a moon-gazing crowd instead. And as with any pastime, there are mistakes beginners can make that can interfere with your enjoyment, or the enjoyment of others nearby. With stargazing in particular, there are a couple bad practices that can actually cause significant damage to expensive equipment, or even personal injury.
So here are some Best Stargazing Practices for you to keep in mind whether you're heading out to enjoy the Supermoon, or planning a trip two weeks after to explore the dark, moonless skies of Southern California.
Red light is easier on dark-adapted eyes. | Photo: mrsmashy, some rights reserved
Be careful to protect people's night vision.
Human eyes take some time to adjust to darkness: it can be as long as half an hour after exposure to bright light before our irises relax to full light-admitting mode. Stargazers rely on night vision to spot stars, planets, and other astronomical objects. Even when looking at a bright full moon, night vision can allow the observer to pick out fine detail through a telescope that might be lost to someone who just got out of a brightly lit room.
Avid stargazers know that red light interferes less with night vision, and specialty stores and websites sell red flashlight lenses for just this purpose: to allow people to use see where they're going without blinding everyone at the star party.
Don't bring a headlamp to a star party. Just don't.
Even if you don't shell out for a red lens, you can protect your night vision and that of those around you by refraining from using a flashlight, or pointing it directly at the ground if you absolutely need to use it. When approaching a stargazing site in a car, be mindful of where you point your headlights. Especially don't point them in the direction of the telescopes and then leave them on as you rummage through the back seat for your water bottle.
And don't expect to be able to use a headlamp at a star party. You know, the kind that sits on your forehead, blinding everyone who faces you directly? Just don't.
The same goes for other forms of illumination. I was at a star party some years ago where a novice eagerly showed off the star map app on his phone, pushing it into the faces of everyone else there on one occasion or another. His screen was bright, and there was much ill-tempered grumbling at his inadvertent sabotage of people's night vision. Some apps have a red mode to lessen the damage, which is helpful. But that help may be negated by the screens you have to navigate through to get to the app. Consider saving smartphone app use for afterward.
Meanwhile, stargazers in the know who need to use laptops or tablets for stargazing notes on a regular basis will often bring a thick beachtowel or similar cloth shield to keep from inflicting night vision damage on others around them.
Night vision allows you to see things like this. | Photo: NateB, some rights reserved
Leave the laser pointers at home
This is related to the night blindness issue, but with the added possibility of actual permanent vision damage. Some experienced star party leaders will use laser pointers to direct people's attention to a particular part of the night sky. The beam illuminates dust particles along its path, providing a visual aid much more helpful than pointing a finger in total darkness.
But laser pointe
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Supermoon, 2014 | Photo: Carl, some rights reserved 
