Congratulations, Moon-Watchers! We get an extra treat this month with a Blue Moon! It is unusual, but not unprecedented. Those with a predilection for satellites attribute the ‘Blue Tinge’ as being defined by the third full moon in a season that features four of them. We are going for something a little more exotic here at Big Pink, since what flies above us is the second full Moon in a single month.

A standard Blue Moon is typically defined as the third full moon in a season that has four of them. Less frequent is what we have now with the second full silver orb masquerading in our pleasant month of August. We do not want you to spend the day filled with alarm, so with some precision, the U.S. Naval Observatory predicts this Blue Moon to rise on the evening of 30 August at 9:35 PM Eastern Standard time.

The excitement comes amplified by the phenomenon that has been on the books and predicted for a while. This may be the same old Moon we normally observe, but it is not only the second Full Moon of this August, but one that places our satellite closest to Earth. The technical term for that astral position is an old Latin one called ‘Perigee.’ Therefore, it is both a “Blue Moon” and a “Supermoon.”

That does not mean it is blessed with superpowers. This next week will show our orbiting companion is going to approach as close as it gets to us in our pirouette of planet motion in the vast sky. This second full moon offers much more. Being that close, it thus appears slightly larger and brighter than normal. So, “super” in this case means not only bigger but more luminous. But that is not all. On that same evening, the Moon will mark the closest approach to the orbit of our fellow planet Saturn.

But like the guy says on the Flat Screen, “Wait, there’s more!” Our first Full moon this month is known as the “Sturgeon Moon.” You would have to ask an Algonquin family why they named it after a large fish. They have lived here a little longer than we have, and got a chance to name it.

So, in addition to being “Blue,” “Super” and closest to the biggest planet in our orbital system there is even more. Our Astrophysicists at NASA have issued a press release claiming these events are rare occurrences, since they occur every two and a half years on average. The last blue one, for example, occurred naturally back in October of 2020 when we were still reeling from the heart of the

This year’s special lunar display gets to combine the astrological combination of both “Super and Blue,” and accordingly is known as a Super Blue.” There is an issue with that since the folks at Smithsonian Magazine, notably amateur star-watcher James H. Pruett, it isn’t going to be pastel-colored.

Back in the July 1943 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, astronomer Lawrence J. Lafleur used the color term in the now-defunct Maine Farmers’ Almanac. That is not the same publication as the Farmers’ Almanac of Lewiston, Maine, which is still in business. Lafleur gave the calendrical meaning for our late August moon as the one that “usually comes full twelve times in a year, three times for each season.”

Occasionally, however, there will come a year when there are 13 full moons during a year, not the usual 12. Mr. Lafleur considered the event as being “a very unfortunate circumstance,” since the monks responsible for maintaining the calendar got confused. The regular arrangement of church festivals came unhinged, and for this reason the number ‘13” came to be considered an unlucky number.

And with that extra full moon, one of the four seasons will contain four full moons instead of the usual three. Mr. Pruett deciphered it this way: “There are seven Blue Moons in lunar cycle that lasts 19 years. In olden times the almanac makers had much difficulty calculating the occurrence of the Blue Moon and this uncertainty gave rise to the expression ‘Once in a Blue Moon.'”

There was more confusion, though, since Lafleur made a very important omission. He never specified the date for the Blue Moon he was describing.

The Blue Moon of 1937 was the third full summer moon in a season that would see a total of four full ones. Names were assigned to each moon in a season: For example, the first moon of summer was called the early summer moon, the second was the midsummer moon, and the last was called the late summer moon.

We don’t know where the fish name “Sturgeon” came from, but Mr. Pruett was unafraid. He took the challenge of a season with four moons and called a blue moon- the third one- so that the fourth and final one can continue to be called “the late moon.”

We are hoping this will be helpful in keeping the next two lunar weeks straight, whether they have a tinge or not. The real fun part? The Seven Sisters are up there as well. That is another orbital naming thing. The Sisters are also known as the Pleiades star cluster. That formation will be in the constellation of Taurus during the close approach. The Sisters are not shy and famed for shooting meteor sparks into our night sky.

At their closest, the Moon and the Seven Sisters will dance just before the Pleiades sets. Although this is a close approach, the Seven Sisters and the moon will maintain a respectable distance. The interval between them will be too wide for them to be seen together in the narrow field of view of a telescope.

The smartest way to observe the dance is through binoculars, which provides a wide-enough view to get them in one field. Which permits us to use the full term, which is unusual. So, enjoy the skies this August. We don’t get a chance to see the Sisters dance with a Super Blue that often, regardless of what Mr. Lafleur and Mr. Pruett found in that old magazine!

Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
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