Dramatic Photos of Super Harvest Moon and Partial Lunar Eclipse

The sky lit up Tuesday evening with a double lunar phenomenon: a super harvest moon and a partial lunar eclipse.

A supermoon is a full moon that appears larger because it occurs almost exactly at the closest approach of the lunar orbit to Earth, known as perigee.

According to NASA, this means that the moon appeared 30% brighter and 14% larger than when the moon was at its farthest point from us, or apogee.

Tuesday’s supermoon was a super harvest moon because it was the full moon that appeared closest to the autumnal equinox. The name dates back hundreds of years, when farmers sometimes used moonlight to work later in the evening.

But the bright sky wasn’t the only sight viewers might have noticed.

The full moon, the second in four months of a supermoon, coincided with a partial lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes between the sun and the moon and casts its shadow on the moon.

In this case, about 3.5% of the Moon appeared dark due to the Earth’s umbra, a term describing the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow.

Unlike the solar eclipse in April, no special glasses are required to safely view the lunar eclipse.

In Southern California, the moon rose at 6:52 p.m., reached its largest disk of Earth at 7:44 p.m., and then gradually faded over 31 minutes. By 9:48 p.m., the moon was at its brightest.

Tuesday’s moon came after a super blue moon on August 19. A blue moon doesn’t describe the color of the moon; it refers to the third full moon in a season of four full moons.

Experts tend to consider supermoons to be those that lie within 90% of the Moon’s closest approach to Earth.

The supermoon in August was about 224,000 miles from Earth. This month’s supermoon was a little closer: 222,000 miles.

The next supermoon will occur on October 17 and November 15.