Major Moon Madness

You may have heard about the upcoming Supermoon on the evening of Jan. 3, 2026. But what exactly is a Supermoon?

During a supermoon the moon will appear around 14% larger and 30% brighter in the sky than usual. Don’t worry, though, the moon itself hasn’t changed! Its larger and brighter appearance is caused by a quirk in the moon’s orbit. It turns out the moon’s orbit isn’t perfectly circular – so the distance between the Earth and moon changes throughout the moon’s 29-day long trip around Earth. At its closest distance, the moon is around 225,000 miles away from Earth while at its farthest it is 252,000 miles away. When the moon is closer to us, it appears larger in the sky, just like a car nearby to you on the highway appears larger to your eyes than one much farther away. A supermoon, like the one on January 3, occurs when a full moon happens to fall on a date when the moon is near its closest distance to Earth.

Here are some other terms about the moon you may have heard, and what they mean:

Full Moon: Full moon is one of the lunar phases, occurring when the Earth is between the sun and the moon. From our perspective on Earth, the entire side of the moon facing us is lit by the sun’s light.

Wolf Moon: A common name given to the first full moon during the month of January. You may hear this supermoon referred to as a Wolf Supermoon for this reason.

Blue Moon: Blue moon refers to a full moon that occurs twice in the same month. This is a rare occurrence – thus leading to the phrase “once in a blue moon.”

Blood Moon: A blood moon refers to the red color that the moon appears during a total lunar eclipse, a rare event when the Earth’s shadow totally covers the moon. The next one of these visible from New Jersey will occur very, very early in the morning around 6:00 am on March 3, 2026.

Come and join us on Saturday, January 3, when LSC will stay open extra hours until 8:00 pm as we stay up late to observe the supermoon and the nearby planet Jupiter! For more information and to purchase tickets please visit our Super Moon Over Manhattan event page.