On the night between 30 and 31 August, an unmissable appointment with the Blue supermoon: it will be the largest full Moon of the year and the second of the same month, the latter circumstance which in Anglo-Saxon tradition is referred to as the “Blue Moon”.
To make everything more special there is also the fact that the two full Moons of this August are both Supermoons, because they occur at the minimum distance from the Earth: they therefore represent a rather rare double, considering that the last one occurred in January 2018 while the next one will be in January 2037.
Astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, scientific director of the, explains it Virtual Telescope Project, which with its mobile instruments will film the blue Supermoon on the horizon of Rome, sharing its vision during a live online broadcast scheduled for August 31st starting at 5.30 am. «At 3.37 am on August 31st the Moon will be full approximately nine hours after its passage to perigee, or the minimum distance from the Earth: due to this overlap between the full Moon and passage to perigee, popularly defined as Supermoon, our satellite will appear about 7% larger and a little brighter than average,” says Masi. It is important to underline that «of the four Supermoons visible this year, that of August 31st will be the closest, therefore the largest, albeit marginally».
To best enjoy the show, which will be hosted in the constellation of Aquarius, the advice is to turn your eyes to the sky at sunset or dawn. «During twilight – recalls Masi – the residual sunlight allows you to admire the terrestrial landscape while the full Moon rises or falls on the horizon. At night, its light is very intense, almost dazzling, compared to the very discreet light of the panorama. At its rising or setting, the Moon projects itself behind buildings and elements of the landscape, generating the sensation that its disk is larger, but it is only an optical illusion, due precisely to the presence in the visual field of terms of comparison, taken from ‘environment”.