June’s strawberry moon will light up the sky tonight, Wednesday morning

(CNN) — June’s full moon, the strawberry moon, will illuminate the sky tonight, peaking early on Wednesday.

The moon has appeared full since Sunday evening, according to NASA. It will reach its peak at 7:52 a.m. ET Tuesday but will not be fully visible in North America until moonrise. This year’s strawberry moon is the first of two consecutive supermoons.

While there is no single definition, the term supermoon generally refers to a full moon that appears brighter and larger than other moons because it is at its closet orbit to Earth.

To a casual observer, the supermoon may appear similar in size to other moons. However, the noticeable change in brightness enhances visibility and creates a great opportunity for people to begin paying attention to the moon and its phases, said Noah Petro, chief of NASA’s Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Lab.

The ideal time to look at the moon is when it is rising or setting since that’s when it will appear the largest to the naked eye, said Jacqueline Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. (The Old Farmer’s Almanac’s calculator can help you find out what time the moon rises and sets in your location.)

The best views of June’s full moon in the United States will be in the southern half of the country and the Southwest. A series of weak storms will move through the Northeast and Great Lakes regions early in the week, creating cloudy conditions that will make it difficult to get a clear view, CNN meteorologist Gene Norman said.