No doubt you’ve already heard or read that we’re going to have a “Super Moon” on Monday.

It’s a relatively new term that I didn’t know until a few years ago, and I’ve been an amateur astronomer for years.

I don’t feel so bad because it’s not an astronomical term, but rather an astrological one dreamed up by Richard Nolle, a famous astrologer.

Astronomy and astrology are two different things entirely. Astronomy is a real science and astrology isn’t. That’s as much as I’ll badmouth astrology, at least for now.

Anyway, this Richard Nolle arbitrarily declared that any full moon that’s within 224,641 miles of the Earth is a super moon. Our modern day, hyped-up electronic media fell in love with that term.

I suppose I should be careful and not such a buzz kill because I’m actually part of that media. The “hip” police may get me.

This year we’re having three super moons, but the super moon on Monday is super duper because it’s not only the closest and largest full moon in 2016, but it’s the closest and largest full moon since 1948. Harry Truman was the president then and a gallon of gasoline only cost 16 cents.

Every 27.3 days the moon makes one complete orbit around the Earth. The moon has no light of its own, but merely reflects the sun’s light as it orbits Earth. The changing angle between the moon, Earth, and the sun is what causes the moon to go through its cycle of phase changes.

Full moons occur when the Earth lies roughly in a line between the sun and moon, and the moon is fully bathed in the sun’s light from our view on Earth.

What gives rise to the term super moon is that the moon’s orbit around the Earth is not a perfect circle, but a little oval-ish. That means the moon’s distance from Earth varies more than 25,000 miles in the course of its circuit.

Every month the moon’s farthest distance from the Earth, dubbed apogee, is more than 250,000 miles. The closest distance, perigee, is a little more than 221,524 miles. The full moon this week only is 221,541 miles from Earth, just 17 miles farther than perigee.

Without a doubt, the full moon on Monday in the Butler heavens will be the biggest full moon in our sky, but not all that much bigger.

In fact, it will only be about 7 percent larger than the average full moon, and about 14 percent brighter. When the moon rises Monday at 5:38 p.m., it’ll look a lot bigger than the average full moon but that’s just an illusion.

The moon and sun always seem much larger when they rise and set. This optical illusion is caused by our eyes and brains comparing celestial bodies with land objects. Again, forgive me if I’m being a buzz kill.

The closest full moon since 1948 will have a definite physical effect on Earth, however. Ocean tides will be a little higher than they usually are during an average full moon because of the increased gravitational pull of the closer moon.

It’s said that the full moon can make people a little crazy, and maybe because it’s closer and has a slightly stronger pull it may have a greater effect. More likely it’s the power of that suggestion that may make folks a little more crazy, including me.

Any full moon does a great job of scouring the night sky with natural light pollution, so serious stargazing is pretty much shot down. You can certainly look at the full moon through your telescope, but I have to warn you that it can be so bright it could sting your eyes a bit.

You may still see a bright disk in your eye for several seconds afterward, similar to what happens if someone uses a flash when they take a photograph of you.

The easiest way to avoid that is to wear sunglasses when you look at the moon through your telescope. I’m not kidding, it really works.

Even with that, full moons aren’t all that great to view through a telescope. You can certainly see the contrast between the dark lunar plains, the larger craters, and the whiter highlands, but without any shadows you can’t see a whole lot of details.

On Tuesday evening, as the waning full super-duper moon rises, look for a little cluster of stars to the upper left of our lunar neighbor.

It will be a little lost in the moonlight but you should be able to spot what looks like a tiny Big or Little Dipper. It’s the Pleiades star cluster, a group of young stars a little more than 400 light years away. Just one light-year equals almost 6 trillion miles.

I think the best thing to do with our super-duper moon this month is to take a walk under it and soak in its light. Maybe look for the man on the moon as well, but most of all ... don’t go crazy.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, “Stars; a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications available at bookstores at www.adventurepublications.net