MOLINE, Ill. — The last super moon of 2022 is coming Thursday night, and it will be the last one we get for a while.
For anyone looking to go outside and enjoy the super moon, the best time to catch the view falls at 8:36 p.m.
The next super moon after that isn't predicted to happen until August 1, 2023.
A super moon occurs when the Moon's orbit is at its closest point (perigee) to the Earth while it's simultaneously in the full phase.
The moon orbits Earth in an ellipse, which makes the moon's distance away from the Earth vary throughout the length of its orbit. At this point in time, the Moon is only 226,000 miles away from Earth. At its furthest point, the apogee, the Moon is 253,000 miles away.
When the Moon appears at the perigee, it is slightly brighter and larger than a regular full moon, which is why we call it a "super moon."
The term super moon was coined by astrologer Richard Noelle in 1979. He claimed that a super moon would cause an increase in severe weather and earthquake, although science has never found evidence to back up this idea.
In the 1930s, the Maine Farmers Almanac began publishing Native American names for full moons, which still continues to this day. Tribes named both June's Strawberry Moon and July's Buck Moon. The Algonquin tribe, located in the northeast part of the U.S., named tomorrow’s super moon "Sturgeon."
The Sturgeon Moon is named after the sturgeon fish that are often caught during this time of the year in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. These fish date back millions of years and can be up to nine feet long, although the species is not as abundant nowadays.