August ends with Saturn’s rings and a giant blue moon hovering over New York City

August will end with a Big Bang – a double astronomical event featuring a super blue moon and Saturn at its closest point.

The blue moon will actually be silver, since the moniker has nothing to do with the color, and the event is just a regular full moon. While blue moons occur once in a blue moon (approx Once every two to three years). hiring Refers to the second full moon in a calendar month. The full moon usually happens once a month, but if August was short like February, April, June, September, or November, we wouldn’t have this conversation.

that it “status “super”.Meanwhile, it does not indicate an actual change in volume either. Instead, on the evenings of August 29-31, our lunar neighbor will appear 17% puffy and glow 30% brighter. This is because the phase of the full moon coincides with the point in its orbit closest to Earth, resulting in what appears to be a three-day full moon. The New York City zenith is actually August 30, when the supermoon will also appear very close to Saturn in the night sky. This week’s supermoon is One of four happening this year — with the latest arriving in early August and the next on September 29.

“Because it’s an elliptical orbit, there are times when it’s closer to us,” said Bart Fried, executive vice president of the Amateur Astronomers Society in New York City. “During those periods when we’re relatively closer to the moon, it will appear larger, but there’s really nothing different about the moon at all.”

The most amazing and rare event will happen a few days ago, It begins on Saturday evening and culminates in early Sunday morning On August 27th. That night, and for a while after that, Saturn will appear large, bright, and yellow. The sixth planet from the Sun will be at its brightest and closest to Earth this year – also known as “Saturn in oppositionBecause its location will be opposite the earth from the sun.

“It (Saturn) can certainly be seen with the naked eye from anywhere in New York City,” Farid said. “It would simply look like a star, but given that you can’t see that many stars, it automatically makes it relatively bright.”

With the naked eye, Farid recommends locating the ringed planet using one of the free astronomy phone apps, such as Stellarium. For a closer look, the speculum can turn the light pricking into a cream-colored oval, making it easy to spot among the shimmering white dots.

“When you get a telescope, Saturn is one of the main things you should ever see,” Farid said. “The rings are absolutely amazing, and it’s very common for people to accuse me of having an image on the front of my telescope.”

Using a telescope, Fried calls Saturn “amazing” because it appears three-dimensional with its rings containing billions of elements. to cut of ice, rock and dust swirling around it. these to cut They are the remnants of asteroids, comets or moons that were crushed by Saturn’s powerful gravity – which is only slightly stronger than our planet’s. (An Earthling weighs 200 lbs You will weigh 216 pounds on Saturn). The shadows cast by the planet and the rings on one another are also shown.

“It’s like you can reach out to the lens and touch it, and it’s just hanging in there – this thing is about a billion miles away, and it’s out there in space,” Farid said.

If you don’t have a telescope at home, the New York City Amateur Astronomers Association and Municipal Parks Department host stargazing events around New York City every night from August 25-30.