Last night’s full moon was the smallest full moon of the year. We’ve heard it called the micro-moon ormini-moon. This March 5, 2015 full moon lies about 50,000 kilometers (30,000 miles) farther away from Earth than will the year’s closest full moon – the full supermoon and Northern Hemisphere’s Harvest Moon – on September 28. The March 5 moon is the year’s farthest full moon because full moon and lunar apogee – the moon’s farthest point in its monthly orbit – both fall on the same date.

Every year has a closest full moon, of course. The mini-moon returns about one month and 18 days later with each passing year, meaning that, in 2016, the year’s smallest full moon will come on April 22. In 2017, it’ll come June 9. In 2018, the year’s smallest full moon will come on July 27. And so on, no doubt until our earthly calendars are long forgotten.

By the way, as an aside, mark your calendar for that September 28, 2015 full moon – the Harvest moon – and closest full moon of this year. It’ll also stage a total eclipse of the moon, which some will call a Blood Moon eclipse. It concludes a series of four straight total lunar eclipses that started on April 15, 2014.