Photo: The supermoon rising through the clouds over the skyline of Lower Manhattan (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The first of two supermoons in August graced the skies on Tuesday.
A supermoon is broadly defined as a full moon that is closer to the Earth than normal. That makes it appear slightly brighter and bigger in the sky. That’s because it will be closer than usual, just 222,159 miles (357,530 kilometers) away.
The next one is on the night of Aug. 30. Because it’s the second full moon in the same month, it will be what’s called a blue moon.
Photo: The supermoon rises behind the minaret of a mosque in Beirut, Lebanon (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Photo: The moon rises above the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Photo: The supermoon rises above a hill in Pera Chorio Nisou on the outskirts of Nicosia, Cyprus (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
Photo: A cable car moves towards Sugar Loaf Mountain, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Photo: The moon above the Galata Tower in Istanbul, Turkey (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Photo: The full moon rises behind the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, Greece (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Photo: Al-Ahrar Bridge, Bagdad, Iraq (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Photo: The supermoon passes behind a New York City skyscraper (AP Photo/J. David Ake)
