Two supermoons — one of them a blue moon — are on their way

Amateur astronomers will be in for a special treat Tuesday evening. But the bigger show comes a few weeks later.

A supermoon will rise over Long Island Tuesday night in the southeast, appearing slightly brighter and bigger than normal. A second supermoon of the month, on the night of Aug. 30, also will be a blue moon.

A supermoon occurs when the moon’s orbit is closest to Earth at the same time the moon is full, according to NASA. The second full moon in a calendar month, also a rare phenomenon, is known as a blue moon.

Tuesday's moon will be just 222,159 miles away. The moon will be 116 miles closer the night of Aug. 30 — a scant 222,043 miles distant. 

There are four supermoons this year, with the first occurring earlier this month. The fourth and last will be in September. The two next month will be closer than either of those.

The National Weather Service forecast for Tuesday evening calls for mostly clear skies across Long Island, which should give stargazers a clear view.

Moonrise across Long Island occurs between 8:36 and 8:42 p.m., starting at the easternmost point of Montauk. The Aug. 30 blue moon will rise a littler earlier, at around 7:40 p.m.

The moon may not appear much larger to the naked eye but will appear brighter. Binoculars can provide a clearer glimpse with a more detailed view of craters and large mountain ridges. Using a telescope, the moon becomes too big to view at once, but the viewer can see in greater detail valleys and cracks in the surface called rilles, according to NASA.

The last time two full supermoons graced the sky in the same month was in 2018. It won't happen again until 2037, according to Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi, founder of the Virtual Telescope Project.

According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the August full moon is traditionally known as the sturgeon moon. That's because of the abundance of that fish in the Great Lakes in August, hundreds of years ago.

Astrologer Richard Nolle coined the supermoon term in 1979, according to NASA.

With AP