Stargazers take note: You won’t want to miss next week’s full moon.
For starters, the full moon on August 30 will be a supermoon. That means it will appear up to 17 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than some months’ full moons, according to NASA.
It’ll also be a blue moon, which makes the occurrence even more special.
Blue moons, by the way, aren’t actually all that rare — they happen about every 33 months. A super blue moon, however, happens far less often.
Indeed, the last super blue moon occurred in December 2009, according to Time and Date. What’s more, the next super blue moon won’t occur for another 9 years, in August 2032.
Why The Moon Will Be A Supermoon
The Moon’s orbit around Earth doesn’t follow the shape of a perfect circle, instead, it’s elliptical. Although the distance between the Moon and Earth varies as the Moon moves along its orbital plane, the average distance between the Earth and Moon is 238,855 miles, according to NASA.
Since the Moon has an elliptical orbit, there are times when it comes closer to Earth than others. The point in the Moon’s orbit when it is closest to Earth is called the perigee. When the Moon is full and it reaches that point in its orbit, it’s called a supermoon.
On August 30, 2023, the Moon will be 222,043 miles from Earth. That means it will be the closest, and therefore the biggest and brightest, full supermoon of 2023.
What’s A Blue Moon?
Most people are familiar with the term “blue moon,” which is commonly used to describe the second full moon in one month. That moniker, however, came about as the result of a misunderstanding.
Historically, the term “blue moon” was used to describe an extra full moon that occurs in one of the four seasons. So, instead of the usual three full moons, a season would occasionally have a fourth, or extra, full moon.
However, the author of an article in Sky & Telescope magazine in 1946 mistakenly called the second full moon of a calendar month a “blue moon,” Sky & Telescope explains. That article — and its blue moon definition — was then cited on the popular radio program StarDate on January 31, 1980.
Finally, the 1986 edition of the board game Trivial Pursuit used “The second full moon in a month” as the answer to the question “What is a blue moon?”
By then, that definition had been accepted into common parlance.
How To View The Super Blue Moon
On August 30, 2023, the Moon will rise at 7:35 p.m. Eastern. It will then reach peak illumination — becoming a super blue moon — at 9:35 p.m. Eastern, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.
Interestingly, this will also be the only blue moon of 2023, according to Space.com.
While the supermoon will appear somewhat bigger and brighter because it’s closer to Earth than at other points in the Moon’s orbit, it will appear even larger as it rises above the horizon due to a phenomenon known as the “Moon Illusion,” which tricks our brains into thinking the Moon sometimes appears larger or smaller.
When the Moon is low in the sky and sits just above the horizon, our brains compare its size to other objects on the skyline such as trees, rocky cliffs, and church steeples. Compared to those objects, of course, the Moon seems massive because it dwarfs everything else in our field of vision, NASA explains.
As always, the best place to see the full, super, blue moon will be just after moonrise, somewhere with an unobstructed view of the horizon. Parking lots or large fields that aren’t surrounded by buildings or trees that block the horizon will be ideal viewing spots.
Finally, while you’re looking at the super blue moon, be sure to look slightly above and to the right of the Moon as it rises. That’s where you’ll see the planet Saturn, which will be especially bright, Space.com explains.
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