Trainspotting is out. Moonwatching is in.
Who needs spotting lists when the sky puts on a show for free?
The full Moon coming up on May 30 and 1 isn’t just any Moon. It’s a blue micromoon. And you better be looking, because the next one of these won’t show its face until 2053.
It’s a rare overlap of events. A double whammy, if you will.
First off, it’s a blue Moon. That’s not a color trick, even though it looks beautiful. It’s a calendar glitch. A second full Moon squeezing into a single calendar month. That happens every few years. But this time, it’s happening when the Moon is at apogee. The farthest point from us.
So you get the rare calendar date mixed with the maximum distance.
They’re calling it a Flower Moon, thanks to the Farmer’s Almanac tradition for May full Moons. Blue Moons don’t usually get the nickname treatment, but who are we to judge? Give it Flower Moon vibes.
It’s going to look tiny.
At 406,139 kilometers (roughly 252,400 miles), it’s the smallest full Moon of the year. Smaller than the other micromoons in 2026. In fact, it’ll be the smallest until 2028 comes around.
Micromoons happen because the Moon doesn’t orbit in a perfect circle. It’s an oval. An egg shape that wobbles.
“The oval doesn’t follow the exact same every time.”
There’s a perigee. Closest. A supermoon territory. Then there’s apogee. Farthest. This territory. The orbit precesses, meaning the timing drifts. It’s messy. Astronomers barely agree on what counts as a “micromoon.” Time and Date keeps a strict cutoff at 405,100 km. Fred Espenak, the eclipse guy, prefers a looser “within 90% of greatest distance” rule.
Confusing? Yeah. But the blue Moon part is clearer.
A synodic month is 29.5 days. Calendar months are 30 or 32 days usually. They drift. Eventually, the alignment shifts so fast that a second full Moon pops up in the same calendar month. A blue Moon.
This particular Moon is also a syzygy. Fancy word for when the Earth, Moon, and Sun line up. Since they line up, the Moon rises as the Sun sets.
Look east. Wait for the sun to dip below the horizon. There it will be.
No fee required. No ticket to buy.
Is there any other way to beat the tedium of a normal Tuesday?
Go outside. Look up. Check two rare boxes on your life list at once. It beats hunting for Pokémon. Maybe.
The sky waits for no one, really, but it gives us this moment. Catch it if you can.
