Starwatch: look out for the largest supermoon of the year on Wednesday

On 5 November, the moon will be just under 357,000km from Earth, making it appear bigger and brighter

This week brings the largest supermoon of the year. Supermoons occur because the moon's orbit is not perfectly circular around the Earth. Instead, it is an ellipse, meaning that sometimes the moon will be closer to the Earth than at other times.

When a full moon coincides with the moon being within 10% of its closest point to Earth, we call it a supermoon. Its proximity makes it appear subtly bigger and brighter than other full moons.