First came a solar eclipse. Since a “strawberry moon.” Now, sky enthusiasts can look forward to seeing a super blue moon this week starting Monday.
The full moon, which will be both a supermoon and a blue moonwill grace the sky on Monday and will appear full until early Wednesday morning, according to NASA. It is considered both a supermoon and a blue moon due to its proximity to Earth and its timing during the season.
Despite the intriguing name, NASA says there will be no visible changes or blue tint with a super blue moon.
There are two definitions of a blue moon – a monthly blue moon, which refers to the second full moon in a month; and a seasonal blue moon, the third of four full moons in a season, like the one occurring this week.
On average, blue moons occur about every two to three years, according to NASA. Super blue moons happen about every 10 years but can be as many as 20 years.
A supermoon, first coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, is a full moon within 90% of its closest approach to Earth, according to NASA. A supermoon appears about 30% brighter and 14% larger than an average full moon.
Monday’s super blue moon will kick off four consecutive supermoons this year. The next three will occur on September 18, October 17 and November 15.
October’s supermoon will be slightly closer than September’s, according to Noah Petro, a lunar reconnaissance project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
This week’s moon is super, and blue isn’t the only thing that makes it special, scientists say. It is also in the middle of one great lunar solsticewhich only happens once every 18.6 years. This is when the moon’s orbit is most extreme and it rises and falls the most northern and southern positionswhich extends beyond that of the Sun.
“It rises further south than the winter solstice sun,” Vanessa Alarcon, the astronomical observer at the Griffith Observatory, told The Times last week. “It’s actually pretty impressive when you see it.”
The Griffith Observatory has moonset lines on its lower West Terrace, which pinpoint the exact locations on the horizon where the Great Lunar Solstice will occur. But it should be visible to everyone when it rises above the eastern horizon and sets on the western horizon, Alarcon said. The phenomenon will occur during large parts of 2025.
Times staff writer Grace Toohey contributed to this report.