Thursday night’s full moon, known as the Hunter’s Moon, will be the biggest and brightest of the year. The Old Farmer’s Almanac notes that Native American tribes named it the Hunter’s Moon as a signal to prepare for winter. Other traditional names for this moon include the Drying Rice Moon, Falling Leaves Moon, Freezing Moon and Migrating Moon.

A supermoon occurs when the moon’s orbit is closest to Earth at the same time the moon is full. This happens when the full moon falls at perigee — its closest point to Earth in its orbit. Perigee is when the moon is 221,