Texas Will See A Supermoon On Tuesday, Then A Blue Moon Later

These hot August nights will be lit up big and bright twice this month.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) night is the first of two full moons we'll have this month. The first full moon is the second of four supermoons we'll have this summer.

Let's start by explaining a "supermoon". It's pretty easy to understand, it's when the moon is closest to Earth when it's full. The actual technical term is "perigee", and it makes for a huge-looking moon. Some of us caught an almost full preview early this morning and it looks amazing. It's also worth noting that not only does the moon appear bigger, it's about 16% brighter (according to the Old Farmer's Almanac).

Our second full moon this month will happen on August 30th and is a Full Blue Moon. Let's start by saying that a "Blue Moon" has absolutely nothing to do with color. The term is used to describe the third moon in a season with four moons, and/or when a calendar month has two moons in the same month (it's become a little confused over time). In short the term "Blue Moon" is used to describe rarity more than anything else.

You might be tempted to try to take some pictures of the moon with your phone. For the best results, experts say to turn off the flash (were you really going to light up the entire universe anyway) and switch on HDR. If you're really motivated, then think about downloading an app for your phone that specialized in optimizing night photos (it would probably be good to have anyways).