When to see August’s supermoons and rare blue moon

August’s first full moon, also known as the “Sturgeon Moon,” will shine brightly in the sky on Tuesday night. 

It will appear brighter and bigger than the average full moon. The Aug. 1 full moon is the second of four consecutive supermoons, which occur when the Moon’s orbit is closest to Earth at the same time the moon is full. Supermoons are about 16% brighter than an average moon.

The supermoon will be even closer on the night of Aug. 30 because it will be a rare blue moon, which occurs when there are two full moons in a single month. A blue moon is not blue in color, according to NASA. 

Astronomy fans only get to see blue moons about once every three years on average. The next blue moon after the one on Aug. 30 will be in May 2026.

The last of the four consecutive supermoons this year will be the Sept. 28 “Harvest Moon.”

August’s first full moon is called the “Sturgeon Moon” because sturgeon were most readily caught during this part of summer in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain, according to the Farmer’s Almanac. The “Sturgeon Moon” was preceded this year by the “Buck Moon.”

Moonrise for August’s first supermoon will be visible after 8 p.m. on Tuesday. A Farmer’s Almanac web page shows specific times for different ZIP codes. 

The first August supermoon will also impact the Perseids meteor shower, which features 50-100 “shooting stars” per hour at its height. The shower will peak on Aug. 12 and 13. However, it will be difficult to see because of the moon’s brightness. 

“Sadly, this year’s Perseids peak will see the worst possible circumstances for spotters,” NASA astronomer Bill Cooke, who leads the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said in a blog post. 

“Most of us in North America would normally see 50 or 60 meteors per hour,” Cooke said, “but this year, during the normal peak, the full Moon will reduce that to 10-20 per hour at best.”