In Solano County on August 30, 2023, an unusual celestial event occurred, a super blue moon. Did it look blue to you? Probably not unless you wore some blue tented glasses. But did it affect how your garden grows?
In 2023, supermoons, or super moons, occur 4 times, including July 3, August 1. August 30 and September 29. Roughly three to four supermoons occur each year, usually occurring back-to-back. Short February may confound the schedule if the series of supermoons occur in the first part of the year, especially in a leap year. During a supermoon, the moon can appear as much as about 17% bigger and about 30% brighter.
The supermoon occurs when the position of the full moon is at its closest point to the earth. NASA defines a supermoon as a full moon occurring at the same time as the moon's perigee, which is the closest point of the moon's orbit with the earth.
A blue moon is only a pattern that occasionally occurs with the calendar we use, in which two full moons occur within one calendar month. For Americans, “once in a blue moon:” refers to a rare event. People who use other calendars could have a situation like this on different months than us, based on their calendars, or not at all if their calendar has less than 29.5 days per month. Consequently, this is not an astronomical event, but only an oddity caused by our Gregorian Calendar.
Occasionally, the moon will appear to have a color tint, which could be blue, red, or yellow, and can be related to atmospheric particles, such as dust from volcanic eruptions. This occurred intermittently for two years around the world after the 1883 Krakatoa volcanic eruption dust cloud continued to circle the earth.
There is no special physical impact on us or our environment, and our gardens, from a blue moon, aside from it being one of the year's full moons. On the other hand, you may have heard of planting certain garden items, such as corn, according to timing related to the moon cycle. Check out the follow up blog next month when we will consider coordinating the times of planting and harvesting with different points of the moon's cycle.
References:
Kim Long, Article: Blue Moon, (fact checked by Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Last updated 08.30.23.
https://www.britannica.com/science/blue-moon-astronomy
Picture reference
Blue moon photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY