There’s a small moon on the rise this weekend.
February’s full moon, known as the Snow Moon, will be rising Saturday and it will look smaller than full moons typically look, USA Today reported.
The optical illusion is because the moon is farther away from the Earth than normal. It is known as a “micromoon” or “minimoon” and is the opposite of a supermoon, which is when the moon is the closest to Earth.
The moon is about 252,225 miles from Earth right now.
The name comes from, what else, but the amount of snow that usually falls in February compared to the rest of winter, The Old Farmer’s Almanac said.
The moon goes by other names, according to the almanac.
It is also called:
- Bald Eagle Moon (Cree)
- Eagle Moon (Cree)
- Bear Moon (Ojibwe)
- Black Bear Moon (Tlingit)
- Raccoon Moon (Dakota)
- Groundhog Moon (Algonquin)
- Goose Moon (Haida)
- Month of the Bony Moon (Cherokee)
- Hungry Moon (Cherokee)
The Snow Moon will peak on Saturday at 7:30 a.m. EST, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. But the moon will look basically full on Friday and Saturday nights.
CBS News said that no telescope or binoculars are needed to see the moon unless you want to see details. You just need the weather to cooperate and look up.
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