--- title: Supermoon Hogs the Spotlight Sunday (Sorry, Perseid Meteors) description: This weekend marks the year's most super-duper supermoon canonical: https://time.com/3094351/supermoon/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-08T21:55:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T08:58:02.637Z article:section: Science og:title: Supermoon Hogs the Spotlight Sunday (Sorry, Perseid Meteors) og:description: This weekend marks the year's most super-duper supermoon og:url: https://time.com/3094351/supermoon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c51a20b2410bb0c/69869eeb35ba6f5ba6c035a2/ap219630811130.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Hungary Moonrise og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Supermoon Hogs the Spotlight Sunday (Sorry, Perseid Meteors) twitter:description: This weekend marks the year's most super-duper supermoon twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c51a20b2410bb0c/69869eeb35ba6f5ba6c035a2/ap219630811130.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Supermoon Hogs the Spotlight Sunday (Sorry, Perseid Meteors) > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=c469122b-fcd0-47c7-b7be-553d8a6eb200&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Explainer: The Supermoon [Watch (HLS stream): Explainer: The Supermoon](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TuBCjirR.m3u8) (3:14)  _Published 2012-05-05. Just what makes tonight's moon so super? Watch this explainer and find out_ by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Aug 8, 2014 9:55 PM UTC by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Aug 8, 2014 9:55 PM UTC This is the summer of the supermoon, with [three full moons in a row](http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/three-moon-nights-will-real-supermoon-please-stand-n152016) that appear bigger and brighter than normal. But this weekend marks the year’s most super-duper supermoon: When the moon rises on Sunday evening, it’ll be as close as a full moon ever gets to Earth during 2014. Purists will protest: At its closest, the full moon is about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than it is at its farthest. That difference is virtually impossible to perceive with the naked eye. It becomes noticeable only when you compare two photos of the full moon taken under the same conditions at different times of year… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/supermoon-hogs-spotlight-sunday-sorry-perseid-meteors-n176291?cid=par-time-article%5F20140808) ## Transcript The full moon has a reputation for trouble. It raises high tides. It makes dogs howl. It wakes you up in the middle of the night with beams of moonlight stealing through the drapes. If a moon beam wakes you up on the night of May 5, 2012, you might want to get out of bed and take a look. This May's full moon is a super moon as much as 14 % bigger and 30 % brighter than other full moons of 2012. The scientific term for the phenomenon is perigee moon. Full moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the moon's orbit. The moon follows an elliptical path around the earth with one side, Perigee, about 50, 000 kilometers closer than the other, Apogee. Full moons that occur on the Perigee side of the moon's orbit seem extra big and bright. Such as the case on May 5th at 11: 34 p. m. Eastern Daylight time, when the moon reaches Perigee. Only one minute later, the moon will line up with the earth and the sun to become gloriously full. The timing is almost perfect. Okay, the moon is 14 % bigger than usual. But can you really tell the difference? It's tricky. There are no rulers floating in the sky to measure lunar diameters, hanging high overhead with no reference points to provide a sense of scale. One full moon can see much like any other. The best time to look is when the moon is near the horizon. For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low hanging moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings, and other foreground objects. On May 5th, this moonavision will amplify a full moon that's extra big to begin with. The swollen or the rising in the east at sunset will seem super indeed. Folklore holds that all sorts of wacky things happen under the light of the full moon. Supposedly, hospital admissions increase, the crime rate ticks upward, and people behave strangely. The idea that the full moon causes mental disorders was widespread in the Middle Ages. Even the word lunacy, meaning insanity, comes from the Latin word for moon. The majority of modern studies, however, show no correlation between the phase of the moon and the incidence of crime, sickness, or human behavior. The truth is the moon is less influential than folklore would have us believe. It's true that a perigee full moon brings with it extra high perigeean tides but according the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration this is nothing to worry about. In most places lunar gravity at pergiee pulls tidewaters only a few centimeters, an inch or so higher than usual. Local geography can amplify the effect to about 15 centimeters, six inches. Not exactly a great flood. Super parogy moons are actually fairly common. The moon becomes full within a few hours of its closest approach to earth, about once a year on average. The last such occurrence occurred on March 19, 2011, producing a full moon that was almost 400 kilometers closer than this one. As usual, no trouble was reported. That is unless you count a midnight awakening as trouble. If so, close the drapes on May 5th. Otherwise, enjoy the super moonlight. 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