The last full moon of the summer will rise Friday

(Image credit: KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)

published 16 September 2016

This is a big weekend for outer space. On Friday, the annual Harvest Moon — the full moon that occurs closest to the official start of fall — will rise, and this year it's bringing with it a penumbral eclipse. While the effect won't be quite as dramatic as a full lunar eclipse, the moon will "appear darker as it slips into the edge of Earth's shadow," Smithsonian explained. Friday's eclipse will mark the "fourth and final" of the year, Sky & Telescope reported, and scientists predict there won't be another Harvest Moon eclipse until 2024. Unfortunately for those of us in the U.S., however, the eclipse will only be visible in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

As if that weren't enough extraterrestrial excitement, this year's Harvest Moon could also be a supermoon, which The Washington Post explained occurs when the moon "is within 90 percent of its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit." Astrophysicists don't agree on whether this year's Harvest Moon qualifies, but if it does occur, the moon will appear somewhat bigger in the sky than it usually does.