TYLER, Texas (KETK) – Thursday night into Friday marks a special night in our East Texas skies.  

“A harvest moon is the first full moon after the fall equinox,” said Dr. Beau Hartweg, director at the Tyler Junior College Science Center. 

According to NASA, supermoons only occur three to four times a year.  

The others happened over the summer on July 3, Aug. 1 and Aug. 30. Hartweg said it’ll brighten up the night skies.  

“It’ll appear like a nice bright, full moon,” Hartweg said. 

The moon will look 5% bigger and 13% brighter than the average full moon. Hartweg said it’ll be hard for the naked eye to notice a big difference.  

“It will appear nice and bright in the sky but yeah you do have to have a pretty well-trained eye to notice that difference,” Hartweg added. 

Hartweg said the next time we’ll see another supermoon won’t be until August of 2024.  

So, he recommends everyone get outside to enjoy what the sky has to offer. Students at Tyler Junior College said they’ll be doing just that.  

“Around 8 or 9 o’clock, I’m going to go out and I’m going to check it out and see how interesting it is,” said TJC student Jenna Rossen. 

Another student said she doesn’t miss these types of events.  

“I am interested in earth science types of things,” said student Jules Cuarenta. “So I think it’ll be really cool to check out.”  

This lunar cycle is also significant because on Oct. 14, we will get a partial solar eclipse in our East Texas skies and all before the full solar eclipse next spring.