The brightest supermoon of the year will be visible in Sydney tonight

Only a handful of supermoons are visible around the world each year but there’s just one that’s brighter than the rest.

Tonight, October 17, is the only day of the year you’ll be able to catch the brightest supermoon of the year from Sydney. The Hunter’s Moon, named such for its association with hunting in the Northern Hemisphere, peaks at 10:26pm AEST tonight and has been shining ever since Tuesday. However, tonight will the only chance you have to see the Hunter’s Moon in its most luminous form.

Note that the moonrise here in Sydney is set for 5:45pm while the moon sets at 5:14am. As always, you’ll ideally want to get away from as many city lights as possible if you’re trying to see the supermoon with common observation spots including the Blue Mountains and Badu Mangroves Bird Refuge near Rhodes.

Despite the patchy weather, this week is one of year’s most exciting when it comes to staring at the sky. Sydneysiders should also be able to catch the Orionid meteor shower this weekend given its scheduled to appear three days after tonights Hunter’s Moon between Saturday and Sunday. This is the result of Earth passing through the trail of debris left behind by Halley’s Comet, which should give us a show made up of around 10-20 meteors.