The end of August will see a rare meteorological event: a blue supermoon. Supermoons occur when the moon is full during its closest point in its rotation around Earth. Its closer proximity to us makes it pop during its travel across the sky, and it appears to be bigger and brighter than normal.
We had our first supermoon at the beginning of the month: on August 1st we experienced a “Sturgeon Supermoon” (so named because the Native American tribes of the Great Lakes found it easiest to catch the massive fish by the light on the supermoon).
A blue moon is when a full moon happens twice in a month; so it stands to reason that our rare blue supermoon gets its name because it will be the second supermoon to occur in the month.
Luna, from Bear in The Big Blue House, gives us a good idea of what a supermoon looks like when viewed at its apex (minus the singing). Source: Muppet Wiki |
The blue supermoon will be occurring August 30th and you may want to mark your calendars: if you miss this one, the next blue supermoon is nine years away. If you want the best possible view, enter your zip code here: https://www.almanac.com/astronomy/moon-rise-and-set/zipcode/20001/2023-08-30 to see when the moon will be hitting its apex in your area.
This is actually what a supermoon looks like. Source: Yasin Akgul/AFP via Getty Images
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/31/1191072404/supermoon-sturgeon-blue-august-rare-lunar-event; https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-august