For the first time in 2017, a supermoon occurred on the night of Sunday, December 3rd, 2017. A supermoon is when the moon is closer in orbit to the Earth, making it appear about 7% larger. This also brightens the moon by about 16%. This supermoon is the first of three consecutive full moon supermoons, with the third one also being a lunar eclipse.

When explaining about why supermoons exist, Michelle Nichols, director of public observing at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, said, “The moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle. It’s more like an oval, so at times it’s closer to the Earth than it is at other times. The difference in distance between these close and far points can be as much as about 30,000 miles.”