A Super 'Super' Full Moon Due on Saturday

Grab your telescopes and cameras and look to the heavens Saturday night. That’s when we’re in for another “Super Moon."

Astronomers are saying that this Super Moon will be even more super than usual.

“The last full moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993,” Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C. told USA Today.

This Super Moon (a phrase coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979) will appear especially large because the moment of perigee—when the moon is closest to the Earth in its monthly rotation—will coincide with the appearance of a perfectly full moon, Smithsonian points out. During last year’s Super Moon on March 19, 2011, for comparison, the perigee and full moon were 50 minutes apart.

On Saturday at 10:34 p.m. Central Time, the moon reaches full moon status—when the earth, moon and sun are all in alignment. One minute later, at 10:35, perigee will occur.

When the moon is near the horizon, illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view, NASA reports. Low-hanging moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects.

Gary Mabry, a customer service representative at in Brentwood had a few tips for photographing a full moon.

• Don't let your camera do a long exposure, or else the moon will look like a white dot in the sky.
• Experiment with different exposures (easier to do now than back in film days).
• If you're including any of the surrounding scenery, that needs to be balanced into the exposure.
• Use a tripod.

"Try different exposures and see what will give you the best shot," Mabry said. "That's the nice thing with digital, we get to experiment with it."

Will the weather cooperate though? The National Weather Service is calling for a 20 percent of showers tonight.

The moon will be 221,802 miles away from Earth Saturday night; (the average distance is 238,855 according to NASA.) That’s 17,053 miles closer.

This all translates to a moon that will appear 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than other full moons this year, according to NASA.

Patch plans to post a photo gallery of the Super Moon with photos from our readers late Saturday night. Come back to Patch Saturday night or Sunday and add your photos to our community gallery.