S'pore gets mooned by big 'blue' supermoon on Aug. 19 night

On the night of Aug. 19, some people in Singapore looked up to see a bright shiny object in the sky.

This was the first supermoon of 2024, also known as a rare seasonal blue moon.

The last seasonal blue moon took place three years ago in August 2021.

This latest supermoon was super special, as it refers to the third full moon in an astronomical season where there are four full moons instead of the usual three.

According to the Science Centre Observatory, the blue moon was approximately 360,000km from Earth.

It looked to be about 6 to 7 per cent larger and brighter than usual, which definitely caught people's eye.

Nice moon shots

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong was one of the lucky ones to get a shot of the moon from his office.

Elsewhere on the island, Singaporeans were looking up too.

The blue moon became the muse of many photographic endeavours on the Facebook group "Cloudspotting & Skyspotting Singapore".

The moon was visible from approximately 7pm (Singapore time), and reached its highest point at around 1am on Aug. 20.

Depending on the timing, location, sky conditions, and camera settings, the moon took on different hues in people's lenses.

Some even caught it looking blue.

But despite how it may appear, the blue moon was not blue, and will remain that way unless specific atmospheric conditions are present.

Also dubbed the Sturgeon Moon, this supermoon was named by Native Americans after the large sturgeon fish, which they believed would be caught more easily during this period.

Early risers managed to catch the moon around 6am to 8am before it took its leave soon after.

Until next time, moon.

You can catch the next few supermoons on Sep. 18, Oct. 17, and Nov. 15.

They will be visible at distances ranging from 357,000km to 361,000km from Earth.

Related stories

Top images via Ilyda Chua, Desmond Chua and Pauline Ang/Facebook