First of three "supermoons" (July 12, 2014)

The moon has reached the crest of its full phase. The full moon crested this morning (July 12, 2014) at 6:25 a.m. CDT. (11:25 UTC). Saturday night’s moon will still look full, however, and it’ll be closest to Earth for this month. The moon’s perigee or closest point comes at 3:27 a.m. CDT (8:27 UTC) Sunday morning, July 13. For all of us, around the world, the moon on both Friday and Saturday night comes up in the east around the time of sunset and sits low in the west at dawn. Thus on July 12 we have the first full moon after the June 21 solstice. Around this time of year, in North America, buck deer start growing antlers, thunder storms rage and farmers struggle to pile up hay in their barns. Thus, according to folklore, we call this full moon the Buck Moon, Thunder Moon or Hay Moon. The July 2014 full moon is also the first of three full-moon supermoons in 2014. Previously, we had two supermoons in January – on January 1 and 30 – but they were new-moon supermoons. The full moons on July 12, August 10 and September 9 all enjoy the supermoon designation because the centers of these full moons and the center of Earth are less than 361,863 kilometers (224,851 miles) apart. The closest supermoon of the year comes with the August 10 full moon, presenting a moon that’s only 356,896 kilometers (221,765 miles) from Earth. Because it’s a supermoon, and relatively close to Earth, expect higher-than-usual tides in the days ahead. [from Earth Sky dot-org] - - - - - http://earthsky.org/tonight/july-12-supermoon-first-of-three-superrmoons