As summer is getting close to ending, August is bringing something special in the sky – the biggest supermoon of 2023. This special moon is also called a “Blue Moon,” which is a name we use when something rare happens, kind of like saying “once in a blue moon.”
This impressive supermoon will be at its brightest and closest on August 30th at 9:35 p.m. EST, as NASA explains. There are two ways we can define a Blue Moon. The more common way is when two full moons happen in the same month, like what’s going to happen this month.
Another way is when there’s an extra full moon in a season. If there are four full moons in a season, the third one is called a blue moon or a seasonal blue moon.
It’s important to know that after the August 2023 full moon, the next time we’ll see a monthly blue moon is not until May 31, 2026, according to EarthSky. And the next time a supermoon is so close to Earth won’t be until November 5, 2025. This means that this month’s supermoon will be the biggest, brightest, and closest moon to Earth not only this year, but for two years until 2025.
The moon goes around the Earth about every 29.5 days. In August, the second full moon will be a supermoon, and it will be the biggest one of 2023 because it will be really close to Earth, only about 357,344 kilometers away, as EarthSky explains.
