micromoon

plural micromoons

1. astronomyA full moon which appears unusually small due to coinciding with the Moon's apogee (the point in the Moon's orbit at which is it farthest away from Earth).

   On Friday the 13th, a harvest micromoon will grace the night sky across the United States.

   2019 September 9, Jenna Amatulli, “Rare 'Micromoon' Is Gracing Us With Its Presence On Friday The 13th”, in HuffPost, archived from the original on 08 Nov 2022

   3 more examples

   What you might notice tonight is that the moon will be brighter — about 30 percent brighter than a micromoon.

   2019 March 20, Brian Resnick, “Wednesday's "supermoon," explained in one chart”, in Vox, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2022

   For a micromoon and Friday the 13th full moon to occur together is extraordinarily rare. The last time it happened was in 1832 and it won't happen again for more than 500 years according to Tony Rice, a meteorologist and engineer at NASA.

   2019 September 13, Matthew Cappucci, “For the first time in 13 years, a full moon rises this Friday the 13th”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 29 Oct 2020

   Most of the eclipse will be dominated by the shadow moving across the moon, with a brief period where it will appear as a blood micromoon in our night sky.

   2021 November 18, Eva Corlett, quoting Rob Davison, “'Blood micromoon': New Zealand to enjoy partial lunar eclipse not seen for 800 years”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2022

   Synonyms: minimoon, apogee moon · Antonyms: supermoon