{"id":472368,"date":"2026-05-29T03:05:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T03:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/472368\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T03:05:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T03:05:24","slug":"rare-blue-micromoon-sets-up-for-stunning-celestial-show-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/472368\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare blue micromoon sets up for stunning celestial show this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Get set for a rare blue micromoon this weekend \u2014 a blue moon that&#8217;s also the most distant and smallest-looking full moon of the year.<\/p>\n<p>A bonus: The brilliant star Antares will photobomb Sunday&#8217;s spectacle for a celestial three-for-one.<\/p>\n<p>A blue moon occurs every two to three years when a second full moon squeezes into a single month. May 1 saw this month&#8217;s first full moon.<\/p>\n<p>IN CASE YOU MISSED IT |\u00a0<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scrippsnews.com\/science-and-tech\/space\/nasa-plans-moon-base-bigger-than-cities-and-the-hardware-is-already-on-order\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NASA plans moon base bigger than cities and the hardware is already on order<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Since the moon&#8217;s orbit isn&#8217;t a perfect circle, the upcoming full moon will be farther from Earth than usual at a distance of 252,360 miles (406,135 kilometers), making it seem a bit smaller and dimmer. It&#8217;s the opposite of a supermoon when a full moon comes closer to us than normal. The most recent supermoon, for instance, was just 225,130 miles (362,312 kilometers) away.<\/p>\n<p>The Virtual Telescope Project&#8217;s Gianluca Masi, who will provide a live webcast from Italy, said Sunday&#8217;s micromoon will appear about 6% smaller and 10% dimmer than that of an average full moon \u2014 &#8220;differences that are subtle enough to likely go unnoticed by most observers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The scene will be especially thrilling south of the equator across the Pacific.<\/p>\n<p>For stargazers in Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, eastern Australia, parts of Antarctica and a smattering of other islands, Antares will vanish temporarily as the blue micromoon passes in front of it.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED STORY |\u00a0<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scrippsnews.com\/science-and-tech\/space\/mars-curiosity-rover-shakes-loose-stuck-rock-after-weeklong-struggle\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mars Curiosity rover shakes loose stuck rock after weeklong struggle<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The red supergiant star, 550 light-years away, is known as the &#8220;heart of scorpion&#8221; in the constellation Scorpius. A light-year is almost 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).<\/p>\n<p>There won&#8217;t be any disappearing act for those looking up elsewhere in the world, with Antares constantly visible alongside the full moon.<\/p>\n<p>And despite the name, this blue moon won&#8217;t appear turquoise, sapphire or any other shade. The term simply refers to the uncommon occurrence of two full moons in one month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get set for a rare blue micromoon this weekend \u2014 a blue moon that&#8217;s also the most distant&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-472368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}