The wolf moon will grace the sky this weekend, reaching its peak illumination early Saturday.
The moon began to look large on New Year’s Eve and has become steadily brighter. It will be at its brightest at 5:03 a.m. ET on Saturday, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
A full supermoon occurs when the full phase of the Moon coincides with perigee -- the point in the Moon’s orbit at which it is closest to Earth.
This weekend’s perigee will put the moon at 225,130 miles from Earth.
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, January’s full moon gets its name because wolves were more likely to be heard howling at this time of year.
A supermoon is a syzygy, or a straight line configuration between the moon, Earth, and the sun.
“The day before Jan. 3 and the day after, the moon will appear full,” said Noah Petro, chief of NASA’s Planetary, Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Laboratory at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The wolf supermoon’s distance from Earth is farther than last month’s cold supermoon of Dec.4, but this weekend’s brightness is helped from a few heavenly bodies.
At its brightest, the wolf moon will have Pollux, a bright star from the constellation Gemini, on its left. On its right will be Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.
This will be the last full supermoon until Nov. 24. The next full moon will be the Snow Moon on Feb. 1.
The third and final supermoon will shine on Dec. 23-24 and will pass within 221,668 miles of Earth.
“Go out and look up and just become awestruck” at January’s supermoon, Petro said.