Expand / Collapse search
☰

Rare Halloween blue moon, two supermoons coming in 2020

Published  January 5, 2020 10:21am PST
FOX 13 Seattle



KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) - Calling all photographers, astronomers and general night-sky appreciators. It's time to update your celestial calendar for 2020.

Last year, we had back-to-back-to-back supermoons at the beginning of 2019.

This year, we will have two.

Remember, a supermoon appears when the moon orbits at its closest point to Earth. This makes the moon appear bigger and brighter than a normal full moon. This year, the supermoons will be seen on March 9 and then again on April 7.

Including the two supermoons, there will be a total of 13 full moons during the year.

There will also be two full moons in the month of October alone, the second of which is called a blue moon. Here's the special, and somewhat eerie, part. The blue moon will fall on Halloween night.

Blue moons typically happen once every two or three years, but it's even more rare to have it on Halloween. The next blue moon to fall on Halloween will be in 2039.