When an object, like Mars, Saturn or the moon, reaches opposition we get to see it at its very best. Its rings, if brought here, would fill much of the space between our planet and the moon.
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Mars will be in its red color, shining from dusk until dawn, to the right of the blue moon. There’s also a bonus for sky watchers this weekend. Mars will appear to be close to the full moon, so you should be able to see the so-called red planet in the southeastern sky Saturday night. A telescope magnification of 100x will enlarge it to the same size as an average full Moon appears to the unaided eye.
Mars is exactly its closest on May 30th, 47.2 million miles from Earth.
What is a blue moon? It happens about every three years; the last occurrence was in August 2013, and the next will be in May 2019.
According to EarthSky, the May 21 full moon is known as a “blue moon”, not because it’s the second of two full moons in a month (as is usually dubbed a blue moon), but because it’s the third of four full moons in a season. Astronomers and stargazers will be treated to two big celestial events: a Blue Moon on Saturday and the Mars opposition on Sunday!
The May full moon is commonly called the Flower Moon, and it also goes by the name of the Corn Planting Moon and the Milk Moon. When it’s lower in the sky, closer to the horizon, it appears to be golden orange.
People using backyard telescopes with high magnification will have especially good views of various surface features, such as white polar caps and dark plains. However, in areas with forest fires or volcanoes, ash or dust particles in the air can sometimes create a blueish tint on the moon, no matter what phase it’s in.
The next blue moon, according to this older definition, won’t occur until May 18, 2019.
The blue moon occurs with a frequency ranging from one year to three years.
Humans saw blue moons nearly every night when the Krakatoa volcano exploded in 1883 with the force of a 100-megaton nuclear bomb.
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Other online doomsday conspiracy theorists, including Nemesis Maturity, suggested that the blue moon is significant because of the traditional association of the event with odd or deranged behavior and weird paranormal phenomena, such as the werewolf transformation legend.
