5 per cent larger and 13 per cent brighter: How to see last supermoon of 2023

Stargazers will be able to get a glimpse of the final supermoon of 2023 in a matter of hours. The full harvest moon is expected to reach peak illumination at 7.57pm (AEST) on Friday and will stay bright into Saturday morning. The moon appears 5 per cent larger and 13 per cent brighter than the average full moon and sometimes appears to have an orange tint. If you want to catch a glimpse of the event, you should go somewhere far away from light pollution and ideally with an unobstructed view of the east. The moon will be 22,604km closer to Earth than average, making it 361,867km away. The last supermoon that got this close to Earth was on August 30 – when the moon was just 357,000km away. The supermoon gets its name from the traditional season of gathering that begins at the start of fall in the northern hemisphere. While searching the sky for the supermoon, stargazers can also look for a number of planets that will also be visible. Saturn, Jupiter, Venus and Mercury will all feature in the night sky at some point between midnight at dawn.