Astronomy enthusiasts will be able to observe the Super Blue Moon, a fairly rare occurrence, on the night of Wednesday 30 August to Thursday 31 August.
This is an impressive event, which is worth watching both closely and from afar. According to NASA, on the night of Wednesday August 30 to Thursday August 31, the world’s population will be able to observe a very rare lunar phenomenon that occurs only once every ten or twenty years: the Super Blue Moon.
The result of two lunar phenomena
Contrary to its name, the Super Blue Moon will not be blue. This color adjective comes from the expression “once there was a blue moon”, indicating the rarity of the event, which would simply be the second full moon in August.
This Blue Moon phenomenon will be added to the Super Moon phenomenon when the Moon is closest to Earth in its elliptical orbit, approximately 364,000 kilometers from Earth. With this approach of the Earth, the lunar star will be larger and brighter than usual.
The combination of these two lunar phenomena makes this a very rare astronomical occurrence, according to NASA.
The US federal agency estimates that the next Super Blue Moon will occur in January 2037.