A supermoon and a blue moon happening at the same time won’t happen again until 2027.
A supermoon and a blue moon happening at the same time won’t happen again until 2027.
The last couple of weeks of August are going to be a doozy for astronomy fans. Saturn and the moon are meeting up Tuesday night, a planet parade is due on Aug. 23, and there will be a meteor shower right at the end of the month. The show starts Monday, however, as the Aug. 19 full moon will be a rare seasonal blue moon that is also a supermoon.
If you can’t view the moon Monday night, it’ll still be plenty bright for the next few days. Aug. 20 will feature a moon that is 98.8% full and the Aug. 21 moon will be 94.7% full.
What exactly is a supermoon? The moon will appear bigger and brighter tonight than the average full moon. The moon’s orbit around Earth is elliptical, meaning that sometimes it’s closer and sometimes further away. When the moon is at its closest, it’s referred to as being at its perigee. When there is a full moon relatively close to the moon’s perigee, it’s referred to as a supermoon.
Supermoons appear physically larger in the sky and are noticeably brighter than average. By contrast, a minimoon occurs when the full moon is closer to its furthest point, which is known as the apogee.
