USA TODAY US Edition

Look! Up in the sky! It’s 2017’s only supermoon

- Doyle Rice

The only supermoon of 2017 will appear in a sky near you Sunday night — weather permitting.

Bigger and brighter than a typical full moon, the term “supermoon” was coined in 1979 by astrologer Richard Nolle.

According to NASA, it’s used to describe what astronomer­s would call a perigean full moon: a full moon occurring near or at the time when the moon is at its closest point in its orbit around Earth.

A supermoon can appear as much as

14% bigger and 30% brighter than when a full moon is at its farthest distance from Earth, NASA said.

The exact moment of the full moon is the morning of Dec. 3 at 10:46 a.m. ET,

(9:46 a.m. CT, 8:46 a.m. MT, and 7:46 a.m. PT), Space.com said.

At that moment, the moon will not be visible over most of North America. However, the moon will still appear plenty big when it rises in the eastern sky Sunday evening.

If you miss this one, don’t fret: The first two full moons of 2018 will be supermoons.

 ??  ?? The supermoon looms bigger and shines brighter than the typical lunar display. The next one will be Sunday. TRAVIS HEYING/THE WICHITA EAGLE VIA AP
The supermoon looms bigger and shines brighter than the typical lunar display. The next one will be Sunday. TRAVIS HEYING/THE WICHITA EAGLE VIA AP

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