Gibbous Moon Rising Over the Cenotaph, Peace Park, Hiroshima

I stayed overnight in Hiroshima city centre last night. It was a beautiful, balmy evening after the oppressive heat of the day.

The student reunion that I was in town for had suddenly been postponed to Thursday, so I was at a loose end and went for a stroll around the city centre and spent a pleasant ten minutes or so contemplating the waxing gibbous moon as it rose over the Cenotaph in Peace Park.

Super Blue Moon

The full moon will be around 10 o’clock on Thursday morning in Japan, so we won’t be able to see it at its very fullest. Unfortunately for us a bunch of typhoons are heading our way and tonight (Wednesday evening) there is too much cloud cover for us to catch a glimpse of the moon.

But for those of you who can see it at its fullest (on Wednesday in the USA), it will be one of the largest and brightest full moons of the year, a “super blue moon.” A super full moon happens when the moon enters its “full” phase while at its orbit has brought it to its closest point to the earth, causing the full moon to seem bigger and brighter than usual.

Why “Blue Moon”?

The full moon occurring at the end of August is called “blue” not because of its hue but because it is the second full moon in a single calendar month. The previous full moon was on 1st or 2nd of August. A blue moon occurs about once every three years.

Full Moon in Aquarius

The August super blue moon is transiting sidereal Aquarius, conjunct Saturn. If you are into traditional westers (“tropical”) astrology, you may think that the full moon is in Pisces. That is because tropical astrology charts divide the circle of the zodiac into twelve 30 degree segments, and name each segment after one of the constellations on the “ecliptic” (the path the sun, moon, and planets follow through the sky when viewed from the earth).

However, the actual (sidereal) constellations in the sky vary in size. Virgo, for example, is much bigger than Libra, so the planets spend more time transiting Virgo than they do transiting Libra.

So, right now, the moon is actually transiting Aquarius in the sky. Look up from your charts and bathe your eyes in the heavens themselves, o seekers of wisdom, and see for yourselves that the moon, and Saturn (which the solar light reflecting off the full moon is obscuring right now) are both in the constellation of Aquarius.

David Hurley
#InspiredFocus

Source: https://www.space.com/super-blue-moon-august-2023-what-time

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