CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Get set for a rare blue micromoon this weekend — a blue moon that’s also the most distant and smallest-looking full moon of the year.
A bonus: The brilliant star Antares will photobomb Sunday’s spectacle for a celestial three-for-one.
A blue moon occurs every two to three years when a second full moon squeezes into a single month. May 1 saw this month’s first full moon.
Since the moon’s orbit isn’t a perfect circle, the upcoming full moon will be farther from Earth than usual at a distance of 252,360 miles (406,135 kilometers), making it seem a bit smaller and dimmer. It’s the opposite of a supermoon when a full moon comes closer to us than normal. The most recent supermoon, for instance, was just 225,130 miles (362,312 kilometers) away.
The Virtual Telescope Project’s Gianluca Masi, who will provide a live webcast from Italy, said Sunday’s micromoon will appear about 6% smaller and 10% dimmer than that of an average full moon — “differences that are subtle enough to likely go unnoticed by most observers.”