Rare Blue SuperMoon

Tuesday, Wednesday (best) and Thursday

Moon rises at Sunset, which is around 9PM

Send us your best photos to magazine@astronomy.ie

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This will be the second Full Moon in August and also the biggest and brightest of the year. The term Blue Moon doesn’t mean that the colour will be blue but is merely a historical reference.

The Moon will be within 360,000 kilometres of Earth so that it will appear much bigger and brighter than usual.

The next date on which a Blue Super Moon will occur is August 2032, making this the last chance to witness one this decade.

“The Moon is full of details to see like craters, mountains, vast lava lakes and more. It is by the far the most spectacular object to see in a telescope. It is great be joining forces with NASA focus on the Moon for one night a year, even if we cannot do it together!” said David Moore, editor of Astronomy Ireland magazine.

We are encouraging everyone to take a picture, even with your smartphone and send it to magazine@astronomy.ie for publication in our magazine.

MOON FACTS

The Moon is roughly 3,500 km across (2,160 miles) wide and roughly 400,000 km (240,000 miles) from Earth.

It is thought the Moon was made when another planet half the size of Earth crashed into the Earth and a huge cloud of molten rock was flung out into space around the Earth and formed the Moon. This happened shortly after the Earth was formed 4,500 million years ago.

Since then rocks in space have smashed into the Moon leaving the countless ‘craters’ that can be seen peppering its surface with a telescope.