The Night Sky This Week: August 28-September 3, 2023“Once in a blue moon” is this week! Saturn at its biggest, brightest and best will shine alongside the “Super Blue Moon.”These are two reasons to get outside looking up this week—but there are many others:Uranus will this week appear to "go backwards." MORE FROM FORBES Exactly When To See The 'Super Blue Moon' Rise, 2023's Biggest And BrightestWednesday, August 30: A ‘Super Blue Moon’ Rises Close To SaturnThe third and final full moon of summer in the northern hemisphere will be a “Super Blue Moon” because it’s the second full moon in a calendar month, something that is bound to happen every few years because the moon takes 29 days to orbit the Earth. Object of The Week: ‘Super Blue Moon’This week sees the rise of 2023’s third “supermoon,” which a calendar quirk leaves it without a name—and hence a “blue moon.” There are four supermoons in 2023—July 3, August 2, August 31 and September 29—and they occur because the moon’s orbit of Earth is slightly elliptical. In every orbit of Earth the moon comes to a perigee (closest) and most distant (apogee), which occur every month 14 days apart.

Source: Forbes August 28, 2023 18:15 UTC