There will be more than just fireworks lighting up the night sky this New Year across Greater Manchester.
January’s first full moon, nicknamed a wolf moon, will take place on January 1 and it will be a supermoon. It’ll be the first of 2018 and it will be closely followed by another at the end of the month, the celestial event known as a blue moon.
Most months have just one full moon, because the twenty nine day cycle of the moon matches up pretty well with the length of calendar months.
Occasionally, there will be two full moons in a month, something that happens about every two and a half years.
But before that comes the Wolf Moon, the first “Supermoon” of 2018 when the moon appears bigger and brighter in the sky. A supermoon occurs when the moon becomes full on the same day that it reaches its perigree, the point in the moon’s elliptical orbit when it is closest to Earth.
The first full moon of the year is nicknamed the Wolf Moon for its supposed effect on howling animals but it can also be known as the Old Moon, The Ice Moon, and the Snow Moon.
