Once in a Super Blue Moon is happening this week. Wednesday, August 30 a Super Blue Moon will be in the Wyoming skies.
Blue moons are a rare occurrence, but a super blue moon is even more rare.
August has been an extraordinary month for the cosmos, because both full moons have been classified as “supermoons”.
According to NASA, the Super Blue Moon on Wednesday is the rarest of them all.
This cosmic phenomenon only occurs every 10 to 20 years. The next Super Blue Moon will not appear till 2037.
Aside from being an extremely rare event, this August Super Moon will also be the brightest moon of 2023 as it is the closest full moon this year.
It will also have stellar company, as Saturn will be visible to the upper right of the moon.
If you want to catch the Super Blue Moon at its peak, it is best to head outside at sunset and look east toward the horizon. Sunset in Cody is roughly at 7:57 p.m.
Majority of full moon names come from Native American folklore, but the term “Blue Moon” came about out of accident.
The reference is not because of the moons color, but because of a printing error. In a 1946 publication in the Sky & Telescope Magazine, they mistakenly printed the reference of the second full moon of the month as a “blue moon”.
The term stuck when a radio broadcast called, “StarDate” used the terminology on their broadcasts, according to the Library of Congress.
There are two types of blue moons; calendrical and seasonal. Seasonal Blue Moons occur when more than three full moons happen in one season. Calendrical Blue Moons, like the one we will experience Wednesday, are the second full moon in a calendar month.
If you are keeping your eyes and cameras to the sky this Wednesday, submit your photos to news@bhrnwy.com to be featured on our website.
