If you noticed that the moon was looking bigger this weekend, it’s going to look bigger and brighter Monday night. Earth’s satellite reached its full lunar phase on Monday, but it will also be what’s called a blue supermoon or a Sturgeon Moon , according to NASA . In terms of color, the moon is not actually blue when this happens.
This nickname is derived from the fact that blue moons appear during a season when there are three or four full moons in total, according to astronomers. The term “Blue Moon” goes back to 1528, when it could be a reference to rare events like when dust in Earth’s atmosphere makes the Moon actually look blue, according to the space agency. Think of the old phrase, “Once in a blue moon.
” When it is a supermoon, Earth’s satellite appears 14% larger and 30% brighter than a micromoon, according to the Royal Museums Greenwich in London. A micromoon and supermoon only occur when the moon is full. This will be the first of four consecutive supermoons in 2024, with ones on Sept.
18, Oct. 17, and Nov. 15, the space website EarthSky wrote.
“That’s the beauty of the phases of the moon, they repeat,” Noah Petro, a lunar reconnaissance orbiter project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told the Los Angeles Times . “Dust off the binoculars, find those telescopes, and make an event of it.” How to see the blue supermoon The full moon will hit its peak at around 2:26 p.
m. Eastern Time and look full for three days, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Look to the southeast after sunset to see the moon rising.
By the evening, 100% of the moon’s side facing Earth will be illuminated. This illumination will slightly diminish over the coming days. Given the size and prominence of the moon on Monday, stargazers won’t need binoculars but they can still be used for close-up views of the lit-up orb.
The biggest caveat could be the weather. Massachusetts is expected to see cloudy and rainy conditions going into the evening, according to the National Weather Service. “Latest guidance continues to agree on the development of a linear band of thunderstorms along an approaching cold front into western and central Massachusetts and into adjacent portions of Connecticut,” forecasters said.
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The risk for thunderstorms in eastern Massachusetts is less with this later-day activity than in the interior.” One way to catch a full view of the supermoon is by following a live stream ran by astronomer Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project based in Rome. Watchable on YouTube, the live stream begins at 3:30 p.
m. Eastern Time . Sturgeon Moon moniker Full moon names come from, among other places, Native American, colonial American and European sources, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.
The name “Sturgeon Moon” comes from the name of the giant lake fish of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain, the Almanac read. These fish were “readily caught during this part of summer and an important food staple for Native Americans who lived in the region.” “At one time the lake sturgeon was quite abundant in late summer, though they are rarer today,” the Old Farmer’s Almanac wrote.
Other Indigenous names used to describe the moon during this particular time of year include the Corn Moon, from the Algonquin and Ojibwe peoples; the Harvest Moon, according to the Dakota; and the Black Cherries Moon, from the Assiniboine, all according to the Almanac. Get a closer look Don’t expect the supermoon to last long. While it will remain in its supermoon state until Wednesday, astronomers have also pointed out that the moon is expected to reach its closest point on its ellipse around Earth.
This close point is referred to as perigee . On average, the moon at perigee is about 225,623 miles away from Earth, according to London’s Royal Museums Greenwich , which operates the Royal Observatory. The moon’s regular distance from Earth is 238,855 miles.
The reason why the moon has a close point and a farther away point, called apogee, from Earth is because Earth is not centrally located along the moon’s ellipse, the Royal Museums wrote on its website. The moon previously reached apogee on Aug. 9 .
When the moon reaches this point on the ellipse (orbit), it is, on average, about 253,000 miles away from Earth, according to NASA. More weather.
