The supermoon rises behind a hill at Pera Chorio Nisou, outskirts of Nicosia, Cyprus, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. The moon appears slightly brighter and bigger than normal because it is closer than usual, just 222,159 miles away, thus the moon is given the supermoon label. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
- Tuesday night brought the first of two full supermoons that will appear in the August night sky.
- The second full moon within one month is called a blue moon.
The first of two August full supermoons graced the sky last night. The Sturgeon Moon reached full illumination Tuesday afternoon, and is actually the second of four consecutive full supermoons this year, according to almanac.com.
(MORE: Two Supermoons And Meteor Showers For Skywatchers)
Photos show the full Sturgeon Supermoon as it rose around the world, from Istanbul's Galata Tower to the New York City skyline and beyond.
A full supermoon is the term for when the full moon occurs when or very near to when the Moon is closest to Earth in its orbit. This makes the moon appear up to 8% larger and 16% brighter than the average moon.
The Maine Farmer’s Almanac began referring to each month’s moon by their Native American names in the 1930s, and these names have since become widely used, NASA reports. August’s full moon was called the Sturgeon Moon by the Algonquin tribes. Sturgeon, large fish found in the Great Lakes, were more easily caught this time of year. This moon is also often referred to as the Corn Moon, according to EarthSky, after the crop that grows readily this time of year.
The next full moon will also be a supermoon, occurring on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. This is referred to as a blue moon, since it is the second full moon within one month. According to CNN, blue moons occur about once every two and a half years, however, it is much more rare for blue moons to be supermoons. The next time two supermoons will occur in one month will be in 2037, according to retired NASA astronomer Fred Espenak.
Senior editor Nicole Bonaccorso works as weather.com's photo editor and writes about breaking news, travel, climate and more.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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