SAN ANTONIO – Something very rare will be happening in our skies on Aug. 30.
We will experience a super blue moon — and it will be the biggest and brightest moon this year.
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At 12:56 a.m. on Aug. 30, the moon will be at perigee, meaning it’s at the point in its orbit when it’s closest to Earth. And because it’s closer, it will appear bigger and brighter —hence, the name supermoon. And this orbit will bring the moon within about 222,043 miles of Earth. The moon won’t get any closer to us until November 2025.
“Visibility and weather should be great to view the ‘super blue’ moon! Low humidity with temperatures falling into the 80s after sunset at 7:58 p.m. We’ll have partly cloudy to mostly clear skies,” KSAT Meteorologist Sarah Spivey said.
So what makes it a blue moon?
The saying, “Once in a blue moon” is used to describe a rare event and it has an astronomical definition.
There are two kinds of blue moons, according to NASA, and neither has anything to do with the actual color of the moon.
A seasonal blue moon refers to the third full moon in a season that has four full moons. A monthly blue moon is the second full moon within one calendar month. We see a blue moon about once every three years, on average, according to NASA.
The moon will meet both the seasonal and monthly blue moon definitions on Aug. 30.
The first full moon this month on Aug. 1 — the “sturgeon moon,” was also a supermoon. It was named “sturgeon moon” because fish was once abundant in August in the Great Lakes region. It’s also referred to as the green corn moon, the barley moon and the fruit moon.
| Sunset | Moonrise | Moonset | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023 | 7:59 p.m. | 7:28 p.m. | 6:30 a.m. (Wednesday) |
| Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023 | 7:58 p.m. | 8:08 p.m. | 7:42 a.m. (Thursday) |
| Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023 | 7:57 p.m. | 8:44 p.m. | 8:51 a.m. (Friday) |
Saturn shows off
The super blue moon won’t be the only spectacle in the night sky at the end of the month. Saturn is in opposition on Aug. 27 and will be at its closest distance to Earth this year. Look for the brightest “star” in the sky situated near the moon and that will be the ringed planet. Saturn will rise in the East in the evening and set in the West at sunrise.
Share your photos!
If you get a good photo or video of the super blue moon we’d love to see it!
You can upload them to KSAT Connect and we may use them on air!
You can check out some images from this month’s first full moon here.