Largest Supermoon of 2013 on the Horizon

Those willing to make the sacrifice of rising early this Sunday will be rewarded with the largest "supermoon" of 2013, which will take place at 7:32 a.m. EDT, though some argue it may not be worth it.

Because the Moon's orbit is egg-shaped, there are periods in which it is at perigee, or the shortest distance from Earth during its roughly month-long cycle, or apogee, its farthest point in its cycle. Should the perigee fall on a night when the Moon is full, it is dubbed a supermoon.

All told, the Moon orbits some 30,000 miles (50,000 km) closer to the Earth during perigee, which represents just over 10 percent of the average distance of 238,857 miles (384,403 km). For this reason, nearby perigee moons usually appear about 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon's orbit, according to NASA.

However, despite these differences, NASA's former Chief Scientist James Garvin explained in a 2011 interview that, ultimately, the effects and apparent differences of supermoons are minor.

"The 'super' in supermoon is really just the appearance of being closer, but unless we were measuring the Earth-Moon distance by laser rangefinders ... there is really no difference," he explained, adding that the phenomenon "really attests to the wonderful new wealth of data NASA's [Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter] missions has returned for the Moon" more than anything.

There are, however, exceptions.

Some supermoons are better timed than others, meaning some of them will appear larger than others. This was the case on March 12, 2011 when the full Moon occurred less than one hour away from perigee in what scientists call a "super perigee moon."

Unfortunately, however, super perigee moons are a rare occurrence with the last one to take place before 2011 happening in 1993 and the next not scheduled for years to come.

Despite the potentially underwhelming view of the average supermoon, though, Garvin argues there is still a potential beauty about the event that helps to "remind us of the effect of our 'Africa-sized' nearest neighbor in our lives, affecting ocean tides and contributing to many cultural aspects of our lives (as a visible aspect of how our planet is part of the solar system and space)."