AS THE Virgin Airbus rises into the dark sky its silhouette is suddenly lit up against the huge moon hovering over the eastern horizon.

But this was no ordinary moon and people looking up across the country last night could not help but notice that it looked larger, brighter and closer than ever before.

That was because stargazers were staring up at a “super moon”, more commonly known by astronomers as a “perigee moon”, where it looks a lot bigger and brighter as it reaches the point of its orbit closest to our planet.

Reading Astronomical Society’s secretary Chris Menmuir said: “It is only a few thousand miles closer, but what makes a big difference is it is visibly close to the horizon so it looks huge in relation to trees and houses. It is called the moon paradox.

“We are very lucky on earth that we have such a large moon in relation to our size.”

Tonight and tomorrow evening stargazers can look up to catch a glimpse of the Perseid meteor shower which is caused by the Swift-Tuttle comet shedding part of its celestial body and leaving behind a trail of dust.

Between 10pm and 11pm it should be possible to see trails of green light as the dust particles ionise in our atmosphere creating the brightly coloured streaks.