micromoon

English

The size of a micromoon in comparison with a supermoon

Etymology

micro- +‎ moon

Noun

micromoon (plural micromoons)

1. (astronomy) A full moon which appears unusually small due to coinciding with the Moon's apogee (the point in the Moon's orbit at which is it farthest away from Earth).

   Synonym: minimoon

   Antonym: supermoon

   • 2019 March 20, Brian Resnick, “Wednesday's "supermoon," explained in one chart”, in Vox‎^[2], archived from the original on 2022-12-06:

     What you might notice tonight is that the moon will be brighter — about 30 percent brighter than a micromoon.

   • 2019 September 9, Jenna Amatulli, “Rare 'Micromoon' Is Gracing Us With Its Presence On Friday The 13th”, in HuffPost‎^[3], archived from the original on 2022-11-08:

     On Friday the 13th, a harvest micromoon will grace the night sky across the United States.

   • 2019 September 13, Matthew Cappucci, “For the first time in 13 years, a full moon rises this Friday the 13th”, in The Washington Post‎^[4], archived from the original on 2020-10-29:

     For a micromoon and Friday the 13th full moon to occur together is extraordinarily rare. The last time it happened was in 1832 and it won't happen again for more than 500 years according to Tony Rice, a meteorologist and engineer at NASA.

   • 2021 November 18, Eva Corlett, quoting Rob Davison, “'Blood micromoon': New Zealand to enjoy partial lunar eclipse not seen for 800 years”, in The Guardian‎^[5], archived from the original on 2022-11-29:

     Most of the eclipse will be dominated by the shadow moving across the moon, with a brief period where it will appear as a blood micromoon in our night sky.

Usage notes

• By the astronomical definition of apogee, a micromoon must be at least 405,000 km away from Earth (compared to its average distance of 382,500 km).