This week's Hunter's Moon will be a supermoon – the brightest in 2024

The next full moon is expected to appear in night skies around the world this week. When it emerges, the phenomenon will have some notable titles.

Firstly, it is the hunter's moona centuries-old name for the full moon immediately after the autumnal equinox and the September harvest moon that increases with it, signaling an acceleration of the hunting season. Some Native American tribes referred to the celestial event with different nicknames — such as the “Blood Moon,” the “Journey Moon” or the “Dying Grass Moon,” according to the Maine Farmer's Almanac — but each was used to mark a similar milestone shift in the year.

The upcoming full moon is also a supermoon, where the moon will appear brighter and larger to skywatchers on Earth due to its proximity to the planet. This full moon is set to be the most dazzling of the year so far.

Why does the moon appear brighter during a supermoon?

Like the Earth's orbit around the Sun, the Moon's orbit around the Earth is elliptical, i.e. oval. This means that the space rock is positioned at different distances from the planet depending on the time of the month and its position in the orbit. The distances range from about 226,000 miles to 251,000 miles, according to NASA.

When the moon hovers at one of these closer distances during a full moon, it becomes a supermoon.

Supermoons only occur three to four times a year because the moon's proximity to Earth rarely coincides with monthly full moons. They are not identical either. Astronomers generally consider a full moon to be a “super” if the moon's position in orbit is at least 90% of the distance from its furthest point to Earth in the ellipses to its nearest. The absolute closest point is called perigee.

When will the next full moon take place?

The Hunter's Moon will be the third of four consecutive supermoons this week, NASA said. It falls on Thursday, October 17, and follows the Moon, which reached perigee a day earlier. For this reason, the 2024 supermoon is expected to be the largest and brightest of its kind, albeit by a very small margin.

The moon will reach its closest point to Earth around 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday evening, with the full moon expected to occur less than 12 hours later, around 7:30 a.m. in the same time zone. It will occur late Wednesday evening for locations west of the International Date Line and early Friday morning for locations east of New Zealand.

Around this time, people should be able to see the full moon for about three days, from Tuesday night to Friday morning. Astronomers expect the supermoon to be most noticeable right after sunset and advise looking directly over the horizon for the best chance of visibility.