By Desiree Salas (media@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Jul 14, 2014 06:41 AM EDT

This is the "summer of supermoons," as CNN puts it. That's because there's not just one, but a total of three occurrences of the moon moving to its closest proximity to the earth from July to September. Actually, according to EarthSky, this year has a total of five supermoons, although the first two already happened in January, during which there were two new moons.

The third one already happened last Friday evening and reached it peak on Saturday morning. If you missed this one, don't fret - there are two more. But first, a little something about the supermoon phenomenon to those unfamiliar of this astronomical occurrence.

"The scientific term for the phenomenon is 'perigee moon," NASA said. "Full moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the moon's orbit. The moon follows an elliptical path around Earth with one side ('perigee') about 50,000 km closer than the other ('apogee'). Full moons that occur on the perigee side of the Moon's orbit seem extra big and bright."

In other words, a supermoon is simply the moon at its full at the same time that it is at its perigree, or the "the point in the moon's orbit when it is closest to Earth," as explained by CNN. And this is not exactly a rare phenomenon.

"Generally speaking, full Moons occur near perigee every 13 months and 18 days, so it's not all that unusual," explained Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory. "In fact, just last year there were three perigee Moons in a row, but only one was widely reported."

During a supermoon, the moon can seem to be "14 percent bigger in the sky and 30 percent brighter to our eyes compared to the normal moons," as noted by BreatheCast. However, it's not that easy to observe such a difference as the night sky may be covered in clouds or haze, and that the sky has no built-in rulers we can use to measure moon size.

Thankfully, we have the likes of NASA and other similar institutions telling us when to expect the next notable phenomenon in the skies.

The next supermoon will occur on August 10th, while the third will take place on September 9th. Additionally, it has been noted that the August supermoon is the one where the moon is at its closest to the earth this year, so make sure you don't miss that next month.

Have you caught last Friday's supermoon? Tell us all about it!

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