While the moon will not appear blue in color, it will certainly be bright in the night sky.
Advertisement
This means that it will align with the sun in a way that places Earth directly in between the two objects, Nasa explains. And on Friday through Sunday May 20-22, the full Moon joins the crowd.
Opposition brings a planet closest to Earth, but not every opposition is as favourable as another.
As the red planet will remain bright for several weeks before fading slowly from view, stargazers will be able to catch a glimpse of the phenomenon even if this weekend proves to be cloudy, according to AccuWeather. Joining it to form a triangle of points in the sky are the planet Saturn and the red supergiant star Antares, as shown in the illustrations below.
People will have the chance to see the moon, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn from the University of Guelph’s observatory at an open house, hosted by the physics department on Wednesday night, May 18.
Opposition has a particularly great effect on Mars, because it is Earth’s neighbour and it has the most eccentric orbit of all the planets.
These events are rare, and the last seasonal Blue Moon occurred in August 2013.
Can the Moon ever be blue? .
As soon as it is dark, the brightest object in the sky, other than the moon, is the planet Jupiter.
To see the next Blue Moon by the monthly explanation, stargazers will have to wait January 31, 2018.
To view the blue moon on Saturday, look toward the southeast at 10 p.m.
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. It will sit about 7 degrees above Scorpius’ bright red star Antares, and 11 degrees above and to the right of Saturn. About every three years there is a 13th full moon.
What is special for the moon at opposition is that the sun lights up the entire face of the moon, making it full and therefore shining at its brightest.
Advertisement
Most seasons (spring, summer, fall, and winter) have three full moons.
