The full moon in August is expected to peak around 9:36 p.m. on Thursday EDT, and will coincide with the Perseids which will reach their peak during the days of August 11 and 12 in the northern hemisphere of the planet.
A supermoon known as the “sturgeon moon” will occur for the fourth consecutive time in 2022 and will be the last supermoon of the year. It will coincide with the Perseid meteor shower, another astronomical event.
The year’s final supermoon will appear as autumn approaches in the north and spring approaches in the south. Because Native Americans found it easier to catch this fish at this time of year, it is nicknamed the Sturgeon Moon.
When will it be visible?
The full moon in August is expected to peak around 9:36 p.m. on Thursday EDT (Friday 0136am GMT); however, it will also appear bright and full on Wednesday and Friday nights (August 10 and 12).
Most scientific definitions consider the Sturgeon Full Moon a supermoon since it appears within ninety percent of perigee. In some publications, supermoons are given specific distance or time restrictions, so the Sturgeon Moon may not be suitable for every publication. Supermoons can be up to 16% brighter than the average full moon, as per timeanddate.com.
This year, three supermoons have already occurred, in May, June, and July. As it turns out, streaks of supermoons like this year’s are not unusual. In 2023, as in 2024, there will be four full supermoons in a row. Three supermoons will occur in a row in 2025.
A Meteor Shower
This year, the Perseids will reach their peak during the days of August 11 and 12 in the northern hemisphere of the planet.
Due to the full supermoon occurring at the same time, their show will, unfortunately, be overshadowed. Even so, NASA predicts that there will be 10 to 20 meteors per hour visible during the peak, down from the 50 to 60 per hour seen without a full moon.
On August 12, or one of the nights before the peak, head to the darkest spot you can find in the pre-dawn hours for your best chance to see as many “shooting stars” as possible.
A popular and consistent meteor shower of the year, the Perseids can be observed late in the summer and early in the fall. The phenomenon occurs every northern summer when our planet passes through the debris tail left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle, which last approached Earth in 1992 when it was rediscovered by Japanese astronomer Tsuruhiko Kiuchi. At the time, the comet became visible with binoculars. By 2126, it will appear as a bright naked-eye comet with an apparent magnitude of 0.7.
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