The last supermoon of the year is upon us. Thursday, the Sturgeon supermoon will rise over the horizon, giving stargazers their last cosmic event of the year. Also called the Green Corn Moon, scientists say the Sturgeon Moon is a “marginal supermoon” and can be seen after 9:30 p.m. ET this Thursday.
According to NASA, the giant moon will be even larger when its degrees rise seven degrees above the horizon between the east and southeast. While the supermoon will occur Thursday, August 11, it will also appear full or nearly full on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
“The Maine Farmer Almanac began publishing Native American names for full moons in the 1930s, and these names became widely known and used,” NASA says of sturgeon. “According to this calendar, with the full moon in August, the Algonquin tribes in what is now the northeastern United States named the Sturgeon Moon after the big fish that were most easily caught at this time of year in the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water. It was. This moon is also called the green corn moon.”
Coincidentally, the giant moon will appear during the same time as the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, giving stargazers plenty to watch in the night sky this week. The Perseids are expected to be most active on August 11 and 12.
“The Perseid meteor shower, which peaks in mid-August, is considered the best meteor shower of the year. With fast and bright meteors, Perseids often leave long ‘wakes’ of light and color behind as they stream through Earth’s atmosphere,” NASA says. “Perseids showers are one of the most abundant with approximately 50 to 100 meteors seen per hour. They occur with warm summer night weather allowing sky watchers to view them comfortably.”
For those unable to catch up with the supermoon, the Virtual Telescope Project will see the supermoon live broadcast against the skyline of Rome on Thursday. You can watch it here.
After this week, the next supermoon won’t be seen until a full year from now on August 1, 2023.
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