worm super moon toronto

A rare full worm super moon will rise over Toronto this week

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's super... worm moon?

2019 has been a good year for celestial events with gross names thus far, but we're about to experience the last of them until next February.

A full worm super moon—the third and final full super moon of 2019—will rise over the entire Northern Hemisphere just in time for the first day of spring on March 21, reaching its peak at 9:43 p.m. ET Wednesday night and setting around 7:30 a.m. on Thursday morning.

Worms will not crawl across or shoot forth from the moon, as I had previously feared.

"Worm moon" is simply an Old Farmer's Almanac nickname for March's full moon, similar to how January's full moon is called the "wolf moon" or November's full moon is called the "beaver moon" (I swear I'm not making this up).

March's full moon was named for earthworms that rise from the ground here on Earth every spring, which is also gross, but less gross than watching giant worms crawl across the moon.

This upcoming worm moon is special in that it will also be a full moon and a super moon, which means that it will appear brighter and larger in the sky than usual thanks to how close it is to Earth in its orbit at the time.

We won't see another full super moon until February of 2020, according to astronomers, but this week's clear weather forecast suggests it'll be an easy one to see from anywhere with unobstructed views of the sky.

Torontonians can expect to see the full worm super moon start to rise about 20 minutes before sunset on Wednesday. It's a perfect way to mark the vernal equinox, if you like worms. Or even if you don't.

Lead photo by

Nicoli OZ Mathews


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