A full moon at its closest to Earth — up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the year's smallest. When the next ones are, and how much you'll really notice.
| Date (UTC) | Name | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 26, 2026 | Harvest Moon | First of three consecutive supermoons |
| Oct 26, 2026 | Hunter's Moon | Second of the trio |
| Nov 24, 2026 | Beaver Moon | Closest & largest supermoon of 2026 |
The Moon's orbit isn't a perfect circle — it's a slight ellipse. At perigee the Moon is about 363,300 km away; at apogee about 405,500 km. That's a difference of roughly 42,000 km, or about 12%. When a full moon happens to coincide with perigee, we get a supermoon; when it coincides with apogee, we get the smaller, dimmer "micromoon". The 14%-bigger / 30%-brighter figures compare those two extremes.
Honestly — only a little. Because you never see a supermoon and a micromoon side by side, the size difference is genuinely hard to judge by eye. The extra brightness is more noticeable than the size. The most spectacular views come not from the supermoon effect itself but from catching any full moon low on the horizon, where the "moon illusion" tricks your brain into seeing it as gigantic. A supermoon at moonrise gives you both effects at once — which is why it's worth watching.