Aug. 20, 2024 10:24 AM EST

August's Supermoon Is The First Of Four Lunar Spectacles

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer
Clouds float past a supermoon over the Jhelum River in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan) Mukhtar Khan, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Clouds float past a supermoon over the Jhelum River in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)
A blue supermoon rises over the Crescent City Connection bridge in New Orleans, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (David Grunfeld/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)
A cable car heads toward Sugarloaf Mountain as the supermoon rises into the night sky in Rio de Janeiro, Monday, Aug 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)
The supermoon is seen over the Smolny Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, with an advertising billboard displaying a Russian soldier, participants of the military operation in Ukraine, in the foreground. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
A statue of Mercury and supermoon are seen at Kastellet in Copenhagen Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Monday's supermoon is the first of four this year.

During a supermoon, the full moon inches a little closer than usual to Earth. A supermoon isn’t bigger, but it can appear that way in the night sky, although scientists say the difference can be barely perceptible.

September’s supermoon will coincide with a partial lunar eclipse. October’s will be the year’s closest approach, and November’s will round out the year.

More a popular term than a scientific one, a supermoon occurs when a full lunar phase syncs up with an especially close swing around Earth. This usually happens only three or four times a year and consecutively, given the moon’s constantly shifting, oval-shaped orbit.

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