Blue Moon to Appear at the End of May

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - At the end of May, a rare blue ‘micromoon’ appeared in the sky. It was called a blue moon and a micromoon at the same time.

But the moon didn’t actually look blue. The name came from the timing of the full moon and its distance from Earth. The full moon was brightest on May 31, and it looked a little smaller and dimmer than usual.

A blue moon does not mean the moon is blue. It is just a name for a special full moon. There are two types. One is when there are two full moons in the same month. The other is when there are four full moons in one season, and the blue moon is the third one. Both types happen every two or three years because the moon’s cycle is about 29.5 days.

The phrase “once in a blue moon” means something rare. But sometimes the moon really looks blue. This happens when dust and ash are high in the air. They scatter red light and let more blue light pass through. So the moon can look blue or green for a short time.

One famous example was after the eruption of Krakatau in Indonesia in 1883. The volcano sent so much ash into the sky that people around the world saw blue and green moons for months. It showed how a big event on Earth can even change how the moon looks.

The second part of the event was the micromoon. The moon’s path around Earth is not a perfect circle. Sometimes it is farther away, and that is called apogee. When a full moon happens at apogee, we call it a micromoon. It looks a little smaller and dimmer than a normal full moon.

The opposite is a supermoon, which happens when the full moon is closest to Earth. A micromoon is about 10 to 15 percent smaller than a supermoon. Most people don’t notice the difference unless they compare photos. You don’t need a telescope to see it. Binoculars or a camera can help you see craters and dark spots on the moon’s surface.

Even if the changes are small, events like this are fun to watch. They remind us how the moon moves and how Earth’s own events, like the Krakatau eruption, can affect the sky. Looking up at the moon is a simple way to connect with both science and history.

Source : National Geographic