Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a Supermoon! For a ball of rock the moon is held in pretty high esteem. It has been the subject of scientific intrigue, a new frontier for exploration and a spiritual icon for people since the dawn of human kind. I am fairly certain that everyone, at some point in his or her life, has looked up and taken a moment to admire the glowing sentinel in our night sky.

Those of you who looked skyward last Saturday and managed to glimpse between the clouds would have witnessed this year’s first Supermoon. If the cloud obscured your view then fear not because there are two more coming over the next few months.

But being a ball of rock, the moon can’t actually change size so what is happening to make this beautiful illusion?

The moon is a natural satellite (as opposed to one we made and put up there) and a big one by comparison to those of other planets in our solar system.

NASA suggests that if we compared the relative sizes of the Sun, Earth and Moon, the sun would be as tall as a typical front door, Earth would be the size of a large grape and the moon would be the size of a pea.

The moon is about 239 thousand miles from Earth and because of the way it spins in orbit we only ever see the same side of the moon.

The bright side, the smiling face that was carved out by collisions with other space stuff, creating canyons and craters over the entire surface of the moon.

The orbit is also elliptical making a rugby ball shaped path around our planet.

This means that at certain times of the year the moon is closer to us (the flat side of the ball) and at other times it is further away (the pointy ends of the ball).

Just like those great photos of people appearing to hold up the Eiffel tower with one finger, when the moon is closer it looks bigger.

We get a Supermoon when that shortest distance is reached, making the moon about 30,000 miles closer to Earth. Scientists call this point of closeness Perigree and the point of greatest distance Apogee (Bedknobs And Broomsticks fans can now read a whole lot more into that famous travelling spell!).

The timing of the full moon with its peak perigree point determines how “super” the moon looks.

The next Supermoon due on August 10 is set to be a Mega or Extreme Supermoon because the peak perigree point occurs within the same hour as the moon becomes full.

This spectacle should be really something so let’s hope for a cloud-free night!