Large "supermoon" beams down on Southern Finland at weekend

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At the weekend, Finland enjoyed the coincidence of a full moon with the closest approach that the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, known as its perigee.
      The resulting "supermoon" was shining in the Finnish sky on the night between Saturday and Sunday.
      The exceptionally large full moon could be admired at least in Southern Finland, where the weather was cloudless.
     
Though interesting and impressive in its way, the supermoon is not ultimately a very rare phenomenon. The last time exceptionally bright moonlight illuminated the night sky in Finland was in March 2011.
      The catchy expression "supermoon"is not widely accepted among astronomers, who prefer the term "perigee-syzygy". Perigee is the point at which the Moon is closest in its orbit to the Earth, and syzygy is a full or new moon, when the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun are aligned.


Links:
  Supermoon (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat