You Won’t Want to Miss August’s Rare Super Blue Moon. Here’s How and When You Can See It

On the heels of  the exciting Perseid meteor shower, the public will be graced with another thrilling night sky moment.

Transcript

00:00Well, a supermoon is really the coinciding of two different celestial events. First of

00:14all, it's when the moon is at its closest to the Earth, because as it orbits around

00:18us, sometimes it is closer, sometimes it's further away. And when that coincides with

00:23it being a full moon, that is a supermoon. So it's usually 7% bigger in the sky and

00:30about 15% brighter as well. Well, luckily it is the biggest, brightest moon you can

00:35get, so it could not be easier. If you have a clear view of the southern horizon, that

00:40helps, but the moon's going to be rising at 9pm. It's going to be getting higher and

00:44further west as the night progresses, and it's going to be up all night long. So really,

00:47you don't need any equipment at all. It's quite a good time to see Saturn. It's actually

00:51really close by to the moon, just slightly higher and off to the left, following the

00:55moon as the evening progresses. So it'll be a bright white dot near the moon, and through

01:00a small telescope, you might even be able to see its rings as well.