August’s first supermoon delights skygazers - in pictures

A cable car moves towards the San Agustin neighborhood as the full sturgeon supermoon rises above Caracas. AP

The sturgeon supermoon rises over the Graves Lighthouse in Massachusetts Bay, about 15km east of Boston. AFP

Two women walk up a mountain on Spain's Gran Canaria with the sturgeon moon in the background. Reuters

The sturgeon moon rises through clouds over the skyline of lower Manhattan. AP

The sturgeon moon rises behind an old army tank in the occupied West Bank near the town of Jericho. AP

The supermoon rises behind a minaret of a mosque in Beirut. AP

The full sturgeon supermoon appears above Dubai Marina on August 1. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Supermoon in Dubai. Antonie Robertson / The National

The supermoon at Al Bahr Towers, Abu Dhabi. Khushnum Bhandari / The National

A commercial airline aircraft flies before the rising sturgeon supermoon above Kuwait City. AFP

The sturgeon supermoon rises above the Mount of the Olives in Jerusalem. AFP

A sturgeon supermoon rises behind the Liberty Monument in Nicosia, Cyprus. AFP

The supermoon rises above Johannesburg, South Africa. EPA

A sturgeon supermoon rises beside a McDonald's logo in Jalandhar, India. AFP

Supermoon in Sydney. EPA

The supermoon rising above Singapore. AFP

The sky is lit up over downtown Jakarta. AFP

Supermoon rises behind clouds as seen from Islamabad. AFP

The Moon over the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul. Reuters

The Moon rises behind the Parthenon in Athens. AP

The Moon in Jindayris, in Aleppo, Syria, a day before the sturgeon supermoon. AFP

Skygazers around the world caught a glimpse of a bigger and brighter Moon on Tuesday night, known as the supermoon.

August’s full Moon is also called the Sturgeon Moon, stemming from the increase in sturgeon fish in North American lakes at this time of year.

The lunar spectacle was visible at dusk on August 1, when the Moon is at its closest point to Earth.

This is because the Moon orbits the Earth in an elliptical shape and at a distance that varies over time.

Rising in the East at a distance of about 363,300km, the supermoon will be visible shortly after sunset.

A second supermoon will rise later this month, on August 30.