First and only supermoon of 2017 will rise on Sunday

The sky has been busy these past few months: several meteor showers, a total solar eclipse and now a supermoon.

While supermoons aren’t necessarily rare, sometimes there are several per year, Sunday will show off the first — and last — supermoon of 2017.

Supermoons happen when a full moon approximately coincides with the moon’s perigee, or a point in its orbit where it’s closest to Earth. It makes the moon appear up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than usual, according to space.com. The full moon in December, even when it’s not a supermoon, is known as the “cold moon.”

The exact moment the moon will become totally full will be at 10:46 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 3.

While it won’t be visible over most of North America at that time, the moon will still appear larger-than-normal when it rises in the sky on Sunday evening, according to Florida Today.

The moon reaches its closest point to Earth for the month at 3:45 a.m. Monday, when it will be 222,135 miles from Earth, space.com reported.

The moon's average distance is 238,000 miles.

But if you miss this one, don’t worry. The first two full moons of 2018 will be supermoons.

Look for them in a sky near you.

This story was originally published November 29, 2017 at 5:30 PM with the headline "First and only supermoon of 2017 will rise on Sunday."