Blue Moon Fact Check: Astronomy Explained and Skywatching Tips

On the last night of May, something a little unusual is going to happen in the sky. A full moon will rise. But this

isn't just any full moon. It's the second one this month. And when a single month gets two full moons, that second

one earns a name almost everyone has heard of, but very few actually understand, a blue moon.

But here's what makes this particular blue moon worth stepping outside for. Right now, the moon is drifting toward

the furthest point in its entire orbit around Earth. The most distant it will be all year. So, when it rises on

Saturday night, it won't just be a blue moon. It will be a blue micro moon. The smallest full moon of 2026.

Not dramatically smaller, but noticeably different from those huge close moons you saw in November and December that

seemed to swallow the horizon. This one sits further back, quieter, and right beside it, glowing a deep red, will be

one of the most striking stars in the entire night sky. We'll walk you through all of it. what a blue moon actually is,

what you'll see on Saturday and how to find the best view. And stay with us until the end because 9 days later, two

of the brightest planets in the solar system are going to line up side by side in the evening sky. That's one you

really don't want to miss. So, why is it called a blue moon? The honest answer is a mistake. The modern

definition of a blue moon as the second full moon in a calendar month traces back to a 1946 article in Sky and

Telescope magazine in which the author misinterpreted an older, more complex definition of the term. That older

definition referred to the third full moon in a season that had all four moons instead of the usual three. A rare but

entirely different event. The 1946 article got it wrong. The error spread and by the 1980s, the misinterpretation

had gone so viral through radio programs and popular media that it became the accepted definition.

Today, when most people say blue moon, they mean the second full moon in a calendar month, even though that's

technically the product of a historical mistake. As for the color, the moon will look exactly as it always does, bright,

white, fully illuminated. The only time a moon actually appears blue is when fine dust or smoke particles from a

volcanic eruption or large wildfire scatter red wavelengths of light and let blue ones through. A genuinely rare

atmospheric phenomenon that has nothing to do with the lunar calendar whatsoever.

Now, here's the part that makes this particular blue moon genuinely interesting. The moon doesn't travel

around the Earth in a perfect circle. Its orbit is slightly elliptical, which means its distance from Earth changes

constantly as it moves through its monthly cycle. The closest point in its orbit is called perigee. The furthest

point is called apogee. When a full moon occurs near perigee close to Earth, it appears larger and brighter than usual,

that's a super moon. When a full moon occurs near Apogee, far from Earth, it appears slightly smaller and dimmer than

usual. That's a micro moon. On the 31st of May, the moon will be at its furthest point from Earth for the

entire year. It will be roughly 13,500 mi or 22,000 km further than its average distance. That makes this not just a

blue moon, but a micro blue moon. The smallest full moon of 2026. Compared to an average full moon, it will appear

about 7% smaller. Compared to a super moon, the kind you'd see in November or December this year, it will appear 12 to

14% smaller and 30% dimmer. In practice, that difference is subtle enough that most people wouldn't notice it without a

direct sideby-side comparison. The moon will still be full, still bright, and still completely worth stepping outside

for. But if you've ever looked at a super moon and felt like it seemed unusually large and close, the moon on

Saturday night will feel like the opposite of that. Blue moons themselves only come around every 2 to 3 years. But

a micro blue moon, a blue moon that also happens to be the furthest full moon of the year, is genuinely uncommon. It

happened in 2020, it's happening on May 31st, and then not again until 203. That's a 27-year wait.

The micro blue moon reaches its fullness at 8:45 UTC on the morning of May 31st, which translates to 4:45 a.m. Eastern

time, well before sunrise for most of North America. That means the best time to observe it is actually the night

before on the evening of Saturday the 30th when the moon will already be more than 99% illuminated and rising in the

east as the sun sets in the west. Head outside after dark. Look toward the east and you'll find a full bright moon

climbing above the horizon. But here's the detail that makes this particular evening especially worth looking for it.

Close to the moon, shining in a warm reddish orange glow will be Antares. The brightest star in the constellation

Scorpius and one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. Its name in ancient Greek roughly translates as

rival of Mars because its red color so closely resembles the red planet. On the night of the microblue moon, the moon

and Antares will sit together in the sky. A bright white gray moon and a warm red star side by side against the black.

No telescope needed, just a clear sky and a view toward the southsoutheast after dark.

If the micro blue moon gets you into the habit of stepping outside and looking up, keep doing it because something has

been building in the western sky for weeks. And it's worth watching every single evening between now and June the

9th. Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets you can see from Earth, are slowly moving toward each

other in the sky. Go outside tonight after sunset. Look west and you'll spot them immediately. Two incredibly bright

objects above the horizon. Venus is the brighter one, blazing, hard to miss. Jupiter is just above it. And here's the

thing. Every evening you go out and look, they'll be a little closer together than the night before. It's

slow, but it's visible. And watching it happen night by night is generally one of the more satisfying things you can do

as a casual sky watcher. On the 9th of June, they'll reach their closest point, just 1.6° apart, about three moon widths

of sky between them. Head outside as soon as the evening twilight fades to darkness. Look west northwest and

they'll be there. You'll have about an hour before they sink below the horizon, so don't leave it too late. No

telescope, no apps, no equipment. Just go outside, look west, and watch two of the brightest things in the solar system

slowly find each other in the evening sky over the next two weeks. The next few months are some of the best of the

year for looking up. First, the Milky Way season is back. For a few months, every summer, the bright glowing core of

our galaxy becomes visible from Earth. And if you get somewhere away from city lights on a clear night, you can see the

whole arch of it stretched across the sky. If you've never seen it with your own eyes, make this the summer you do.

It doesn't photograph the way it actually feels. Then comes August 12th, and that one date is genuinely

extraordinary. On the same day, a total solar eclipse will sweep across Greenland, Iceland,

and Spain, where a partial eclipse visible across much of Europe. And that same very night, the Percads, the most

beloved meteor shower of the year, reached their peak. Under a completely dark, moonless sky, you can see up to

100 meteors an hour. An eclipse, and a major meteor shower on the same day. That basically never happens. We'll be

covering all of it. So, if you haven't subscribed yet, now's the time. If you like this, you'll love what's next. NASA

just released 12 new images for the first time, and some of them are so strange, they're hard to explain. We

broke down every single one. Make sure you don't miss out on them.