Rare ‘blue super moon’ will appear between the clouds this evening

Renatta Signorini | Wednesday, August 30, 2023 8:01 a.m.

Tribune-Review

If you’ve referred to something rare happening “once in a blue moon,” that time is now.

The moon won’t be blue when it rises into the skies Wednesday evening, but the blue moon refers to the second full moon in a calendar month, according to NASA. A blue moon happens every two or three years — it takes the moon 29.5 days to complete its lunar cycle, so more than one full moon in a month is a rare occurrence.

But there will be something extra special about Wednesday’s blue moon — it will be combined with a super moon, which is when the moon is at its closest point to Earth in its orbit.

Wednesday’s blue super moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of 2023, Space.com reported. Such a lunar treat won’t be seen again until 2037, according to NPR.

The National Weather Service is predicting mostly cloudy skies Wednesday night in the Pittsburgh area.