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After a weekend of meteor showers, skywatchers will have another treat as the calendar turns to August.
The first of two full moons in August will reach its peak on Tuesday, August 1. And as an added bonus, both of the full moons this month are also supermoons.
There are four supermoons in 2023. The Aug. 30 moon will also be a blue moon, since it’s the second full moon of the month.
The August 1 sturgeon moon will reach peak illumination at 2:32 p.m. ET Tuesday, when it’s below the horizon here in the U.S. However, it will still appear plenty full when it rises above the horizon in the southeast sky that evening after sunset.
The supermoon designation means that it will appear slightly bigger and brighter than a typical full moon.
Full moon rising:All about the full moons of 2023, plus more about supermoons and the blue moon.
Why is it called the sturgeon moon?
“August’s full moon was traditionally called the sturgeon moon because the giant sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were most readily caught during this part of summer,” the Old Farmers Almanac said.
Sturgeon are a group of large fish that have been dubbed living fossils because they have remained almost unchanged for more than 100 million years, Newsweek said. Sturgeon were once found in great abundance, but their populations have declined greatly due to overfishing and habitat loss, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
Why do full moons have names?
The full moon names used by publications such as the Old Farmer’s Almanac come from a number of sources, including Native Americans, Colonial America and Europeans.
Traditionally, according to the Almanac, each full moon name was applied to the entire lunar month in which it occurred, not solely to the full moon.
What is a supermoon?
When the moon’s orbit brings it closer to Earth than usual, this cosmic combo is called a supermoon.
When this happens, the moon can appear slightly bigger and brighter than normal to those of us down here on Earth.
“Because the orbit of the moon is not a perfect circle, the moon is sometimes closer to the Earth than at other times during its orbit,” NASA said. “Different publications use slightly different thresholds for deciding when a full moon is close enough to the Earth to qualify as a supermoon.”
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