One of the world’s brightest and biggest moons of the year lit up the world skies on August 30th. The second super moon of the month appeared the night of Wednesday 30th and early morning of Thursday 31st August providing lucky sky gazers with a treat. They had the opportunity to see a rare blue supermoon above the UK, last seen in 2009, a once in a blue moon opportunity indeed!
This celestial event was visible in the UK, throughout the nation’s skies as soon as it appeared over the horizon, at around 2:30am on Thursday. Songs, books and films have been inspired by this natural phenomenon. One of the most popular versions is one which Elvis Presley, interprets in his greatest ever ballad performance “Blue Moon’, recorded on August 19, 1954 while his 1954 recording of “Blue Moon of Kentucky” became a hit with both country and rock audiences.
Individuals headed out to look at the moon should be warned that its name does not promise anything to do with its colour because contrary to what its title suggests, its name derives from the fact that it is an odd one out from the usual lunar calendar, hence the super blue moon will not appear any more blue than other full moons.
The name blue moon is given to a moon when there are 13 moons rather than 12 per year which occurs roughly every two to three years, since the phases of the moon take 29.5 days, which means takes just 354 days out of 365 for 12 moon cycles.
Although the next blue moon will be visible in 2026, a super blue moon is an even rarer event, with the next due to rise above our skies in 2037. Viewers only had to turn their heads towards the South in order to catch a glimpse of the super blue moon, and no telescope is required to see it.
Going to somewhere with darker skies and limited light pollution however, will naturally improve your viewing of the blue super moon.
This August has also seen the rare phenomenon of two super moons. This phenomenon occurs when a full moon is near its closest point to Earth, making it seem bigger and brighter than a usual full moon. As opposed to 252,000 miles when the moon is at its furthest point from the planet, it will be located 222,000 miles from Earth.
Royal Museums Greenwich advising people how to spot the super moons, says that as long as there is not too much cloud, the full Moon will be an unmistakable white orb in the sky and that this was a good opportunity to use a small telescope or a pair of binoculars to see the detailed surface of the Moon, or even try taking a few interesting moon photos. You could however see the Moon perfectly well with just your eyes. Seeing moonrise just following sunset or moonset just before sunrise will be an extraordinary sight as it will appear enormous compared to the surrounding landscape.
Due to an optical illusion, the Moon looks bigger during moonrise than it is because our brain does not understand that the sky is a dome, and falsely projects things near the horizon to appear larger than they actually are.
There will be another treat for stargazers next month when Neptune is at its most visible and it will be brighter than any other time of the year and will be visible all night long on September 19. Due to its extreme distance from Earth, it will only appear as a tiny blue dot in all but the most powerful telescopes.
