On Wednesday, August 30th, we’ll have our second full moon of the month! This occurrence is known as a “blue moon,” and just as the saying goes, it doesn’t happen often.
What makes this blue moon even more special is that it also coincides with a supermoon creating a rare event that won’t happen again until 2037. Here’s what time the rare blue supermoon occurs in different areas of the world…
If you feel like you’re having supermoon déjà vu, it’s completely warranted. This is our second supermoon in the month of August 2023. At the beginning of the month, we witnessed a Sturgeon Moon captivate the world in the night sky.
If you missed it, don’t worry. The blue supermoon rounding out the month on August 30th will be the biggest and brightest of the two and of the four supermoons happening this year.
What time is the blue supermoon?
The blue supermoon peaks (officially full) at 9:36 PM EST or 1:36 AM UTC, on Wednesday, August 30. For your convenience, here is the peak time in your city:
- São Paulo, Brazil – 10:36 PM local time
- Los Angeles, CA – 6:36 PM local time
- Mexico City, Mexico – 7:36 PM local time
- Honolulu, HI – 3:36 PM local time
- London, England – 2:36 AM local time, August 31
- Lagos, Nigeria – 2:36 AM local time, August 31
- Paris, France – 3:36 AM local time, August 31
- Moscow, Russia – 4:36 AM local time, August 31
- Pakistan – 6:36 AM local time, August 31
- Mumbai, India – 7:06 AM local time, August 31
- Tokyo, Japan – 10:35 AM local time, August 31
This is only peak time, so if you miss Moon’s closest approach, don’t worry it’ll continue to look bigger and brighter throughout the night and likely tomorrow night as well.
In addition, if you look to the east roughly an hour after sunset it’s likely you’ll be able to see Saturn rising close to the moon!
Looking for a decent telescope before the next full moon? I’d recommend these options on Amazon.
What’s a supermoon?
Supermoons, by definition, happen “when a full moon coincides with the Moon’s closest approach to Earth in its elliptical orbit, a point known as perigee,” according to NASA.
“Different publications use slightly different thresholds for deciding when a full moon is close enough to the Earth to qualify as a supermoon,” says NASA. “Because the orbit of the moon is not a perfect circle, the Moon is sometimes closer to the Earth than at other times during its orbit.”
On average, supermoons appear around 14% bigger and 30% brighter in the night sky.
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