This week, viewers around the world can feast their eyes on the Blue Sturgeon Supermoon.
It’s special, but perhaps not at first glance. No doubt the full moon will appear larger than usual this week. But no, the moon will not turn a sky blue color. It does mean, however, that the cosmos has packed an extra full moon into your summer (or winter, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere). The blue supermoon is a rare treat and won’t happen again until 2032.
“About 25 percent of all full moons are supermoons, but only 6 percent of full moons are blue moons,” according to NASA.
The full moon in August 2024 will be obscured by thick clouds as it rises over the south of England.
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The “triple designation” given to Earth’s natural satellite when it rose on Monday, August 19, is a useful way to describe what the Moon has been up to lately.
The moon goes through a round of its phases once a month. But to be precise, this takes 29.5 days. Each season lasts about three months. In general, this means that each season brings three full moons. But in 2024, there was a fourth full moon during summertime in the Northern Hemisphere, which is winter in the Southern Hemisphere. The third of these four full moons is called a Blue Moon.
The moon is “super” because it looks much bigger in the sky. When the moon orbits the Earth, it moves in an elliptical orbit. Sometimes it is closer to the Earth and sometimes farther away. If the moon happens to be near or at the closest point in its orbit to the Earth, called perigee, it looks bigger.
The Farmer’s Almanac calls the full moon in August the Sturgeon Moon.
The full moon on August 19th rises in the night sky over tall buildings near the Dutch city of Eindhoven.
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This fish was once abundant in North America at this time of year, explains the Farmer’s Almanac. “The name Sturgeon Moon comes from the giant lake sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain; this native freshwater fish was easily caught during this time of summer and was an important staple food for Native Americans living in the region. Lake sturgeon were once quite common in late summer, but they are now rarer.”
The next seasonal blue supermoon will be on August 21, 2032, according to NASA. Five years later, Earth will get its next monthly blue supermoon, when two supermoons appear in the same calendar month.
