“Super Moon” describes a new or full moon occurring at the same time the Moon comes within 90 percent of its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit.
It’s an event that happens 4-6 times a year, but according to a NASA Science News story, tonight’s full moon will nearly coincide with the moon’s arrival at its closet point in its orbit around the Earth, resulting in the biggest, visible full moon in North America in two decades.
“The last full Moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993,” Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C. said in the recent NASA Science News story. “I’d say it’s worth a look.”
Full story: Rare ‘super moon’ rising tonight