The month of August will bear witness to two supermoons—one on Tuesday, August 1, and another one on August 30. There are usually two or three supermoons in a year but the one on August 30 is going to be a rare one that we might not get to see again till 2032. What is a supermoon? Supermoon refers to when the Moon’s orbit is closest to the Earth at the same time the Moon is full. When that happens, it appears slightly brighter and larger than a regular full moon. The sturgeon supermoon The first full Moon of the year, the one on Tuesday, will be a “sturgeon supermoon,” according to Farmer’s Almanac. it gets its name from the Native American tribes who found that the giant sturgeons from the Great Lakes were most easily caught during this time of the summer. The sturgeon moon is also referred to as a green corn moon, grain moon, flying-up moon, harvest moon, ricing moon, black cherries moon, and mountain shadow moon, according to NPR. Blue supermoon You may have probably heard the phrase “once in a blue moon” used to refer to things that happen very rarely. But what is a blue moon? Well, to begin with, there are two kinds of blue moons. One definition is for when a full moon appears for the second time in a single month, according to NASA. Despite the expression that comes from it, a blue moon is not as rare as you think. Full moons are separated by 29 days and since most months are 30 or 31 days long, it is quite possible for two full moons to fit within a month. And in fact, it happens every two and a half years on average, according to the space agency. But a supermoon coinciding with a blue moon is a much rarer occurrence. Based on the website Time and Date’s calculations, the last time it happened was in December 2009. The next time? In August 2032, meaning that you will have to wait nine years before it happens again after August 30. Needless to say, the Moon will not actually be turning blue on August 30. In fact, you might have a hard time distinguishing the supermoon from a run-off-the-mill supermoon. Nonetheless, you can take joy from the knowledge that it is a rare event that won’t happen again for another nine years.
