See photos and video of rare super blue moon rising over Kansas City skyline
Did you see the blue supermoon?
Or did you see the super blue moon?
Whatever you want to call the special moon that rose Wednesday night, you wouldn’t be wrong to call it spectacular.
Earth’s original satellite put on a show rising over the Kansas City skyline starting at 8:06 p.m. It started out with a deep orange glow which shifted closer to gold as it climbed higher in the perfectly clear sky.
The moon was considered a supermoon because it was at, or within 90% of it’s closest point to Earth in a given orbit while in a full moon phase. The term supermoon is a relatively recent term and comes from astrologers, not astronomers according to space.com.
The designation of blue moon has been around much longer than supermoon. The moon is deemed a blue moon when it is the second full moon to rise in a single month. The last full moon was on August 1, making Wednesday’s moon a blue moon.
A second full moon within a month rising at its closest point to earth is a rare cosmic intersection The next time that combo will occur is in 2037.
So what is the proper name for Wednesday’s moon? According to space.com, which covers all things interstellar and beyond, it is a “Super Blue Moon”.
