The first appearance in a full supermoon double-header graced the skies over OntarioĀ on Tuesday night, and stargazers were treated to quite the show for part one of August’s rare blue supermoon.
August will bring two full supermoons to the night sky, a rare occurrence that will not occur again until 2037. Luckily for sky-watching shutterbugs, it was a mostly cloudless night over Canada’s largest city, making for unobstructed views of a massive supermoon.
Super Moon last night over our city #Toronto @Lyndsay_CTV pic.twitter.com/Xk803LnOEP
ā Terry Hlywka (@tdanielsphoto) August 2, 2023
Tuesday’s sturgeon supermoon saw the celestial body orbit at just 357,530 kilometres from Earth, or around 30,000 kilometres closer than its typical orbit of 384,400 kilometres.
#Sturgeon #Supermoon rises above #Toronto skyline!#SturgeonMoon #SturgeonMoon2023 #SturgeonSupermoon #moonrise #canoncanada #sigmacanada pic.twitter.com/gGB2EwESAq
ā Mohsen Majnoon (@ayatejonoon) August 2, 2023
The term “blue moon” is a bit of a misnomer, having nothing to do with the hue of the Moon and instead describing an extra full moon within a season or calendar month. Instead of any blue tones, the cratered sphere took on a menacing orange cast on Tuesday night before eventually evening out on the colour wheel as it rose higher over the horizon.
@HolHumberstone heres a pic I just took of the supermoon from my house in the toronto areaš#hollyhumberstone #D4vd #superbloodmoon pic.twitter.com/50d3pZTLnO
ā ā” noah (@noah_x_hh) August 2, 2023
Capturing images of the glowing natural satellite is easier than ever before thanks to rapid advances in phone camera technology, the type of photos once reserved for photographers wielding massive professional telephoto lenses.
Supermoon over Toronto! pic.twitter.com/IRz5cfuYEP
ā Ajay Bommasani (@AjayBommasani) August 2, 2023
Some smartphones even offer a “moon mode”Ā designed specifically for shooting photos of the celestial body.
If you missed the first full supermoon event in August, you still have another chance just a few weeks away.
A second full supermoon will illuminate the night sky on August 30, and this one will be even closer than the first, at 357,344 kilometres from the Earth.
This month’s double-header will mark the only blue supermoon event of the 2020s, and it will be a full 14 years before two full supermoons rise in the same calendar month again in 2037.
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