SNOW MOON RISING
First SUPERMOON of the year dubbed the ‘Snow Moon’ to shine in the sky this weekend
A RARE combination of a "snow moon" and supermoon will be seen in the sky starting tomorrow night, NASA says.
Star-gazers will notice when it rises and sets this weekend.
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It will appear full for about three days, "making this a full Moon weekend," according to NASA.
The snow moon is the first full moon in the month of February, and usually the second full moon of winter.
This year the snow moon is also a super moon, which is seen when the moon reaches its closest point to Earth during its monthly obit.
The snow moon is also called the "Storm Moon," the "Hunger Moon," and many other names by different cultures, according to NASA.
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The Cree, a Native American tribe, described the "Great Moon" as a time when "animals do not move around much, and trappers have little chance of catching them," NASA said.
The moon becomes "officially full" for those on the East Coast on Sunday at 2:33 a.m.
"The moon will be in the constellation Leo, the lion, and it will have an apparent width of 0.55 degrees," reports .
"On average, the moon appears 0.52 degrees wide, so the difference in size will be difficult to see for any but the most dedicated observers, and to most people it won't be noticeable."
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Experts do not always agree on what a supermoon.
"'Supermoon' isn't an official astronomical term, and there's no firm technical definition for it, so different sources sometimes disagree," NASA's Preston Dyches told Space.com.
It is the first supermoon of 2020.
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