On this occasion it will be about 357,364 kilometers from our planet, much closer than its average distance of 384,400 kilometers, so it will appear 30 percent brighter and almost 15 percent larger than a full moon at its furthest point from Earth (apogee).
It is called so because it traditionally marked a time when hunters used the moonlight to hunt en masse, gather provisions and store food in order to prepare for the winter. Some Native American tribes referred to the celestial event by different names, such as the Blood Moon, Travel Moon, or Dying Grass Moon.
This week’s Hunter’s Moon will be the third of four consecutive supermoons, preceded by the Sturgeon Moon in August and the Harvest Moon in September, followed on November 15 by the Beaver Moon, the last of 2024.
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