Perigee & Perihelion on the Same Day

Today, 2026 01 03, marks Earth's closest approach to the Sun, known as Perihelion and by a remarkable coincidence we have a Supermoon as the Moon is close to Perigee.

The image shows a photograph of the 99.9% full Moon next to a photo of the Sun. Horizontal lines across the image marking the top and bottom of the Moon show that the Sun appears smaller than the Moon, today.

The title text at the top of the image reads "Closest Approach of the Moon (Perigee) and Sun (Perihelion) to Earth on 2025 01 03)"

The data under the Moon reads:

Date: 2026 01 03. Time: 06:37:56 UTC
Distance: 360 190 km
Apparent Angular Diameter: 33' 9.86"

The data under the Sun reads:

Date: 2026 01 03. Time: 11:33:50 UTC
Distance: 147 098 000 km (0.983 AU)
Apparent Angular Diameter: 32' 31.04"

Exposure Data

Moon: f/5.9, 1/400s, ISO-100
Sun: f/15.7, 1/400s, ISO-100

Nikon D800
Skywatcher 200P
Thousand Oaks type 2 reduced aperture solar filter

PIPP: Pre-process images of Moon for stacking
Autostakkert: Stack 50% of Moon images
GIMP: Process Moon and Sun images separately and combine