How to Watch Tonight ’ s ‘ Super Blue Moon ’

The moon has been much in the news this August. For most of the month, uncrewed spacecraft from Russia and India were in a hot cosmic race to see which country would earn the bragging rights of being the first to safely land a ship in the moon’s south polar region. On Aug. 20, Russia’s plans came to ruin, after an engine burn intended to fine-tune the ship’s descent went awry. Three days later, India—very much a newbie in the moon game—successfully stuck its landing, earning this year’s top honors for lunar exploration. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But the moon hardly needs human intervention to make cosmic headlines. Tonight (Aug. 30) at shortly after 8:30 p.m. eastern time, through the morning of Sept. 1, a rare “super blue moon” will rise in the skies, creating a spectacle that thrills photographers, amateur sky watchers and even seasoned astronomers. The ”super blue moon” label requires a little unpacking. For starters there is nothing remotely blue about the way the moon will look tonight. Instead, the label–whose provenance is unsettled—refers to the second full moon in any single month. The last one to fill the skies was Aug. 1, so tonight’s full moon comes in just under the wire to qualify for the blue distinction. Blue moons are not common. Only 3% of full moons are blue moons, according to NASA, so tonight’s moon would be noteworthy no matter what. But then th...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news