Hunter moon: What to know about next full Supermoon

Tonight’s chilly temperatures will be graced by a bright full moon.

The Hunter’s moon will reach its peak Thursday, Oct. 17 at 6:26 a.m. CDT but will appear full the night before.

As the first full moon after the Harvest Moon, this will be the Hunter’s Moon, according to NASA. The name, the space agency explained, comes from a time when hunters would stalk the fattened deer in gleaned fields. It’s also known as the Travel Moon, the Dying Grass Moon, the Sanguine or Blood Moon.

“This is the month when game is fattening up for winter. Now is the time for hunting and laying in a store of provisions for the long months ahead,” the Farmer’s Almanac explained.

Tonight’s full moon will be the third of four consecutive supermoons, the name given when a full moon is at or near the closest point in its orbit, making it appear roughly 7% brighter and larger than a typical full moon but most people won’t be able to tell a huge difference.

Here’s how the Farmer’s Almanac explains it:

“Supermoon” is a catchy term for what astronomers call “a perigean full Moon,” which is when the full Moon happens at or near its closest point to Earth in its oval-shaped orbit. While a supermoon is technically bigger and brighter than a regular full Moon, it only appears about 7% larger—which can be an imperceptible difference to the human eye, depending on other conditions.”

October’s supermoon is the closest of 2024′s supermoons,  coming as close as 222,055 miles from the Earth. The first two occurred in August and September with the last, the Beaver Moon, coming in November.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, three supermoons will occur in 2025, one per month in October, November and December.