By Marcia Dunn
Stargazers are in for a double treat on Aug. 30: a rare blue supermoon with Saturn peeking from behind.
The cosmic curtain rises Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it’s considered blue. It’s dubbed a supermoon because it’s closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright.
This will be the closest full moon of the year, just 222,043 miles (357,344 kilometers) or so away. That’s more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) closer than the Aug. 1 supermoon.
As a bonus, Saturn will be visible as a bright point 5 degrees to the upper right of the moon at sunset in the east-southeastern sky, according to NASA. The ringed planet will appear to circle clockwise around the moon as the night wears on.
If you missed the month’s first spectacle, better catch this one. There won’t be another blue supermoon until 2037, according to Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi, founder of the Virtual Telescope Project.
Clouds spoiled Masi's attempt to livestream the supermoon rising earlier this month. He’s hoping for clearer skies this time so he can capture the blue supermoon shining above St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
Weather permitting, observers don’t need binoculars or telescopes — “just their own eyes." said Masi.
“I’m always excited to admire the beauty of the night sky,” he said, especially when it features a blue supermoon.
The first supermoon of 2023 was in July. The fourth and last will be in September.
Wellness 4 Humanity is testing out COVID-19 related vending machines. Items include tests kits and PPE. Cheddar's Chloe Aiello reports.
A team of international and Chinese scientists looking for the origins of COVID-19 says the coronavirus most likely first appeared in humans after jumping from an animal.
March of Dimes CEO Stacey Stewart spoke with Cheddar about the need to advance the science of COVID vaccine testing on pregnant populations.
After seeing two academic years thrown off course by the pandemic, school leaders around the country are planning for the possibility of more distance learning next fall at the start of yet another school year.
Rescuers in northern India are working to rescue more than three dozen power plant workers trapped in a tunnel after part of a Himalayan glacier broke off and sent a wall of water and debris rushing down a mountain.
In the 1920s, an army of real estate boosters set out to redefine Florida from an economic backwater to a ritzy vacation destination, sparking a land boom — and bust — the likes of which America had never seen before.
Nate Boutte, pharmacy manager for Walgreens, talked about the readiness of the pharmacy chain in getting COVID vaccines out in the White House's new distribution plan.
A new study may help answer one of the big open questions about the campaign to suppress the coronavirus outbreak.
Doctors say a 22-year-old man from New Jersey is recovering after receiving a rare face and hands transplant.
Philanthropist and former Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer wants President Biden to do more than just reverse Trump's policies on climate change.
