This month’s “super blue moon” celestial event is the first since 2009

The onset of August brings two exciting celestial events involving full moons, the first of which will play out Tuesday and Wednesday evenings in Denver.

It will be the first of two so-called “supermoons,” which are full moons that coincide with the lunar orb’s closest approaches to Earth in a given year, making them appear slightly larger than normal. And, when there are two full moons in the same month, the second is called a blue moon. That will occur Aug. 30.

According to TimeandDate.com, a respected astronomy data site that focuses on cycles of the moon and sun, the last time there was a super blue moon was in 2009, and the next one will occur in 2032. Supermoons appear 14% bigger and 30% brighter relative to “micromoons” at the other extreme.

This week’s full moon is occurring when the moon is making its second-closest approach of all the full moons this year (222,022 miles). The blue moon at the end of the month will occur when the earth is 221,942 miles away, the closest full moon of the year.

Moonrise in Denver will occur at 8:47 p.m. on Tuesday and at 9:23 p.m. on Wednesday.

Because the moon travels a monthly elliptical orbit, and the earth isn’t quite at its center, the moon will be its farthest distance from the earth of the year in just two weeks — Aug. 16, to be exact — at nearly 252,700 miles.

The other celestial event to watch this month is the annual Perseids meteor shower, which began in mid-July. It is expected to reach its peak Aug. 12-13. According to a post on a NASA education site, the Perseids could offer 50-100 meteors per hour. Viewing could be good because the moon will be a waning crescent then.

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