What to know about Monday’s blue supermoon

An orange supermoon rises behind the Giza Pyramids.
The supermoon rises behind the historical site of Giza Pyramids, near Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

On Monday night, serious moon viewers may notice something different about the moon — if you look hard enough.

The full moon will be a blue supermoon, a celestial occurrence that combines two events: a supermoon, which is when the moon is closest to the Earth, and a blue moon, the third of four full moons in a single season.

The cosmic event usually happens about once every 10 years, but there was a super blue moon last August as well. NASA determined that the moon had met the criteria for this seemingly rare event two years in a row.