A Rare Beaver Supermoon Brightens the Sky this Weekend
A rare Beaver supermoon will be brightening the night skies this weekend, and we won't see another moon quite like it again until 2034. While supermoons are always brighter than normal, the reason that November's full moon will appear extra bright, is because of its close proximity to Earth – only 221,000 miles away, which is also the closest it's been in distance to us since January of 1948. The Beaver Moon, also known as the Full Frost Moon, originally got its name from Algonquin tribes and American colonists who used the full moon as a marker of when the time was right to set out beaver traps before the swamps froze.
While the lunar show in the sky will be happening throughout the entire weekend, the best viewing times are around 5-6 p.m. on Sunday evening when it will appear to be extraordinarily large on the horizon, and also in the early hours before dawn on November 14. The best places to watch are in areas with little light pollution, like up at Horsetooth Reservoir, and another bonus for weekend skygazers, Mars, Venus, and the Taurid Meteor Shower should all be visible too with clear weather.