Super blue moon 2023, the most beautiful images around the world. PHOTO

The world was able to admire the blue supermoon (here we are in Egypt), the rarest astronomical event of the year. A phenomenon thus defined by experts to refer to the frequency with which it occurs (full moon twice in a month), and is not related to the actual color of the Earth’s satellite planet

Blue supermoon, why is it called that?

The origin of the term is linked to the English language, where the expression “once in a blue moon” (“once in a blue moon”) indicates a rare and unusual event. Here we are in New York

Supermoon, the show in the skies of the world at the beginning of August

The moon appeared larger and brighter than usual given its proximity to Earth: only about 222,043 miles (357,344 kilometers) and surprised and delighted stargazers around the world. Here we are in London

Deer supermoon, the first of 2023

If anyone missed the event, the wait will be long: the next blue supermoon won’t appear until 2037. But another “normal” supermoon is on the horizon at the end of September, the last one of the year. Here we are in Srinagar, India

In these cases two different scientific phenomena overlap, namely the ellipticity of the lunar orbit and the way we count the days in the calendar. Here we are in Lecce

The Moon, like all orbiting bodies, is in an elliptical, non-circular orbit around the Earth. The point of closest approach to the Earth, the perigee, is about 360 thousand kilometers away from the surface of our planet. Here we are in Istanbul

The point of maximum departure, the apogee, occurs instead at about 406 thousand kilometres. If the perigee and the apogee occur in conjunction with the Full Moon we speak respectively of Supermoon and Micromoon. Here we are in Santa Maria di Leuca

In a year there are 12 months because every year there are 12 full moons and therefore 12 lunar months. The lunar month, however, lasts a little less than the calendar month, about 29 and a half days. There is therefore a gap of up to two and a half days between the calendar month and the lunar phase cycle. Here we are in Turin

This is why the full moon falls on a different day each month than the previous month. Every 2.7 years, this offset leads to an extra full moon and thus a year in which the full moon occurs 13 times instead of 12. This also means that there will be one month in that year with two full moons. Here we are in Syria

2023 is one of these years with the month of August, in fact. The first full moon occurred on August 1st and therefore the second 29 and a half days later, on the night of August 31st. Here we are in Cyprus

The Supermoon appears just 15% brighter and larger at most, but being isolated in the sky there are no elements of comparison and a difference of this type risks being overlooked altogether. Here we are in China

Here we are in Toronto, Canada

Here we are in San Francisco, USA

Here we are in Southeast China

Here we are in Malta

Here we are in Colombia

Here we are in Madrid, Spain

Here we are in Berlin, Germany