Vietnam welcomes the closest new supermoon in 1,000 years on the first day of Tet

According to Time and Date, at the closest position, the Moon will be only 356,568 km away from our planet. This will happen at 20:54 on January 21, GMT, or 3:54 a.m. on January 22 (the first day of the Lunar New Year) Vietnam time.

Because this is still the new moon phase of the lunar cycle, it is nicknamed a "super new moon".

Graphic depicting the sky at dawn on January 22 with a black super crescent moon

The Moon's close proximity often makes it appear unusually large when viewed from Earth, but according to Space, the biggest regret is that the new moon is the phase when the Moon is still immersed in the Earth's shadow.

So, even though the Moon will still be there and unusually large during this once-in-a-millennium event, the Sun will not be able to provide light for it, which means we won't be able to observe it.

To see the unusually large Moon again, Earthlings will have to wait... more than 3 centuries. That is on January 20, 2368. The Moon will then be slightly further away than it was on the first day of the Lunar New Year this year - about 9 km.

Although invisible, this "dark supermoon" still has a powerful effect on Earth with an especially high tide.

Moon lovers should not be too regretful, because 2023 still promises to bring two extremely spectacular supermoons.

For people in the GMT time zone, it will be a supermoon on August 2 and a "super blue moon" on August 31. A blue moon is a term used to describe the second full moon of the month. In the GMT+7 time zone, Vietnamese people will usually observe the fullest moon with a deviation of 1 day.

According to Laborer