If you like moon gazing, 2020 will not disappoint — as long as cloud cover over Southwestern Pennsylvania doesn’t obscure a rare blue moon on Oct. 31 and two supermoons included among this year’s 13 full moons.
According to NASA, a Blue Moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. Typically, there is only one full moon a month. However, since full moons are separated by 29 days, a second full moon fits into a single month about every two and a half years on average, according to NASA.
This year’s blue moon will fall on Halloween, with the first moon of October, the Harvest Moon, falling on Oct. 1, according to NJ.com.
But will it actually be blue? Probably not, according to NASA. But it did look blue in 1883 when an Indonesian volcano exploded, sending plumes of rose ash to the very top of Earth’s atmosphere and making the moon appear to be blue, according to NASA.
Supermoons occur when the moon is at the closest point in its orbit around Earth, according to NASA. This year’s supermoons will be on March 9 and April 7.
This year’s first full moon, the Wolf Moon, will occur at 2:21 p.m. EST Friday, according to space.com.
