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muriel_volestrangler

(105,614 posts)
2. This moon was not that "super" - not as close as the last 2 full moons we've had
Sun Jan 4, 2026, 08:25 AM
Jan 4
Of the possible 12 or 13 full (or new) moons each year, usually three or four may be classified as supermoons, as commonly defined.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermoon#Occurrence

There isn't a hard and fast "supermoon" definition; the Greenwich observatory didn't count this January as a supermoon, for instance:

When is the next supermoon?
See upcoming supermoon dates below.

Year Supermoon date
2025 Thursday 4 December
2026 Thursday 24 December
The last supermoon was on 5 November 2025.

https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/space-astronomy/what-supermoon

So this is not "extraordinary" at all; it's roughly "3rd out of 13", per year. This is not a "celestial bang". Especially since, as the rest of the article points out, the bright full moon would have made the Quadrantid meteor shower less visible.

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