The largest and brightest supermoon of the year will light up the UAE’s skies on Wednesday, November 5.
Known as the Beaver Moon, it will be the penultimate supermoon of the year, appearing about 14 per cent larger and up to 30 per cent brighter than an average full moon.
A supermoon refers to when the Moon’s orbit is closest to Earth at the same time as a full Moon.
Tuesday's supermoon will be about 356,833km from Earth, almost 28,000km closer than the average distance.
“The Moon looks bigger when it’s near the horizon due to the ‘moon illusion’,” Khadijah Ahmed, operations manager at the Dubai Astronomy Group, told The National.
“Although the Moon's actual size doesn't change, our brain perceives it as larger when we see it next to objects like trees or buildings on the horizon.”
It was given the nickname ‘Beaver Moon’ because of an old tradition, when Native Americans used to mark the time beavers would prepare for winter by building their lodges before rivers froze.
"The term has origins from a variety of traditions and folklore in Native American and European culture," Nasa says on its website.
"November is when beavers prepare for the winter by fortifying dams and stocking their food supply.
"November was also the season to trap beavers for their thick, winter-ready pelts to use for warmer clothing."
This will be the second of three supermoons to take place in the country this year, with the first one, called Hunter’s Moon, that happened on October 1.
The final supermoon of the year, the Cold Moon, will appear on December 4.
This is a busy season of astronomy events that includes supermoons and meteor showers.
The Orionids meteor shower peaked on October 21 and 22, sending bright streaks of light across the night sky.
The season will close with the Geminids meteor shower on December 13 and 14. The Geminids are among the most reliably visible and dazzling showers, and can feature 120 meteors an hour at their peak.
HOW TO WATCH
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Straightforward ways to reduce sugar in your family's diet
- Ban fruit juice and sodas
- Eat a hearty breakfast that contains fats and wholegrains, such as peanut butter on multigrain toast or full-fat plain yoghurt with whole fruit and nuts, to avoid the need for a 10am snack
- Give young children plain yoghurt with whole fruits mashed into it
- Reduce the number of cakes, biscuits and sweets. Reserve them for a treat
- Don’t eat dessert every day
- Make your own smoothies. Always use the whole fruit to maintain the benefit of its fibre content and don’t add any sweeteners
- Always go for natural whole foods over processed, packaged foods. Ask yourself would your grandmother have eaten it?
- Read food labels if you really do feel the need to buy processed food
- Eat everything in moderation
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
