The complete Moon rising Wednesday night over the Bay Space is being referred to as a Tremendous Blue Moon.
Why tremendous? Any time a full Moon coincides with the Moon’s closest strategy to Earth in its 27-day orbit, that Moon is known as a perigean or Tremendous Moon. The Moon at its perigee, or closest level of orbit, is roughly 226,000 miles from Earth, in keeping with NASA. The final Tremendous Moon was earlier this month on August 2.
Why blue? As a result of it’s the second full Moon in August and the third full moon this summer season, a season that spans 4 full Moons, in keeping with Area.com. So it’s blue by two definitions, one in every of which is month-to-month and refers to any second Full Moon in any given month. Whereas the opposite definition is seasonal:
“The older definition of Blue Moon, relationship again to not less than the 1500s, is the title for the third full Moon in a season that has 4 Moons. By this definition, the complete Moon in August 2024 would be the Blue Moon and this full Moon, because the final full Moon of summer season, shares among the seasonal names from my posting for the August 1 full Moon. Neither of those definitions has something to do with the colour of the Moon, so the Blue Moon won’t really look blue.”
