August Supermoon 2023: The second supermoon this year rises on August 2. It is the first of two supermoons occurring in August this year. The August supermoon is also known as the Sturgeon Moon. It occurs less than a month after the first supermoon of 2023 rose in the skies on July 3. The Sturgeon Moon can be seen rising in the east after midnight.
The reason why the August supermoon is known as the Sturgeon Moon is that long ago, this was the time of the year when the sturgeon fish, which is North America's largest fish, was abundant in the Great Lakes.
The August supermoon will be visible in the night skies at 18:31 UTC on August 1 (12:01 am IST on August 2), according to timeanddate.com.
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The reason why this full Moon is a supermoon is that the entire sunlit side of the celestial body is nearly in line with the Sun and Earth. In other words, the full Moon will appear opposite the Sun in Earth-based longitude.
When the Moon's orbit is closest to Earth, or at the perigee, at the same time when the Moon is full, a supermoon occurs. The perigee is the closest point to Earth in the Moon's orbit, and is about 3,63,300 kilometres from the Blue Planet. A supermoon appears slightly brighter and larger than a regular full Moon. Such a Moon appears up to seven per cent larger than an average full Moon.
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The Moon will appear full through August 3.
People can watch the August supermoon online on the official YouTube channel of The Virtual Telescope Project.
What happens after the first supermoon of August, and before the new Moon?
With every passing night after August 2, the Moon will keep rising higher up in the sky, and the bright sunlit appearance will become smaller or will wane. Such a Moon is called a waning gibbous Moon.
On August 8, only one half of the Moon will be sunlit, and it will rise around midnight and set around noon, according to NASA.
The Moon will reach its crescent phase by August 16, and will only show its dark side towards Earth. The dark side and far side of the Moon should not be confused with each other. The Moon shows its dark side towards us at almost all times due to the gravitational pull of Earth. The face of the Moon which is not seen by people on Earth is called the far side. The first time humans saw the far side of the Moon was in 1968, as part of the Apollo 8 mission.
During a new Moon, the full dark side faces Earth, because the sunlight side slowly turned away in the days prior to the new Moon due to the revolution of the satellite around Earth.
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The Micro Moon
This month, the new Moon will occur at 9:38 UTC (3:08 pm IST) on August 16. This new Moon will be special because it will occur near the apogee, or the farthest point in the Moon's orbit around Earth. It is called the Micro Moon.
After the new Moon, the natural satellite will start reappearing. Such a Moon is known as a waxing Moon. As it grows, the Moon will reach the crescent phase again. On August 24, the Moon will reach its first quarter, and its bright side will be lit up by the Sun.
The Blue Moon
On August 30, the second supermoon this month, and the third supermoon of the year will occur. Such a Moon is known as the Blue Moon because it is the second full Moon in a particular month. Since it is rare to have two full Moons in a single month, and the phrase "once in a blue moon" is used to refer to unusual events, the second full Moon occurring in a certain month is called Blue Moon.
In most months, only one full Moon occurs because it takes the Moon 29.5 days to complete one lunar cycle: from full to new, and back to full. The next Blue Moon will occur in August 2024, but it will not be a supermoon.
The next Super Blue Moon will occur in August 2032.
The fourth and last supermoon this year will occur in September.