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First supermoon of 2020 is coming this weekend

Set up those telescopes, you've got all weekend to marvel at the snow moon.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
nasafullmoon

A brilliant full moon rises above NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2017.

NASA/Kim Shiflett

Get ready for the first supermoon of 2020. According to NASA, the moon will be completely full on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 2:33 a.m. ET, but will appear full all weekend, from about Friday evening to Monday morning. Because it's in February, this particular supermoon is also called the snow moon. Other names for it include the storm moon, hunger moon, and Chinese Lantern Festival moon.

The term "supermoon" was coined in 1979 to describe what occurs when the moon's orbit is closest to Earth at the same time the moon is full. Such moons appear slightly brighter and larger than a standard full moon, which makes them favorites of photographers and night-sky gazers.

The next full moon will also be a supermoon, and will occur in a month, on March 9. 

Just over a year ago, the brightest supermoon of 2019 shone in the sky. Last September saw a rare moon that wasn't a supermoon but made headlines for being a nationwide full moon that was visible on the spooky date of Friday the 13th.

The best astronomy photos of the year will leave you star-struck

See all photos