Stargazers will get a perfect opportunity to watch the last supermoon of 2017 make a spectacular appearance as it rises over the eastern horizon early on Monday night, December 4.

“The supermoon is a rare sight that doesn’t happen very often but when it does you’ll want to make sure you’re outside ready to check out just how breathtakingly beautiful it looks in the night sky,” said Dave Reneke from the Mid North Coast Astronomy Group. 

“All across Australia, the moon will be bigger and brighter than normal.

OK, telescopes ready? The best time to enjoy a super full moon is at moonrise, a little after 8pm on the east coast of Australia on December 4. 

All full moons bring higher than usual tides but if you’re going fishing during the supermom watch for ‘king tides.’

The term supermoon actually originated from the studies of modern astrology and despite the claims of some people around the world, the supermoon will not destroy the Earth. Nor will it turn you into a lunatic.

“Hey, with the nice full moon on Monday night it’s a good opportunity to take a photograph of it,” Dave said. 

“There’s something magical about those pictures of the moonlight sky and dazzling stars, they convey a special something that daytime photos can’t.”

Here’s everything you need to know about this week’s supermoon

Got a smart phone? You can hand hold it over the telescope eyepiece and careful aiming might get you a few nice moon shots. Email them to yourself. It’s the best way to build up experience and collect a good number of moon ‘selfies.’

Supermoons are a good time to reflect back about the first moon landing and what it all meant. Neil Armstrong was of course the first man chosen from an impressive pilot list to walk on the Moon - but he nearly didn’t make it. This is something not many people know of.

Armstrong handed in his NASA application a week late, and were it not for a friend secretly slipping it into the pile, he would’ve been rejected? Did you know too that the space agency no longer has the original video tapes of their moon landing because they recorded over them? 

Visit Dave’s website www.davidreneke.com