Qatar residents witness rare super blue moon

Doha: A super blue moon a rare cosmic combination of a supermoon and a blue moon graced Qatar s skies on Monday, August 19. Despite intermittent c...

Doha: A super blue moon — a rare cosmic combination of a supermoon and a blue moon — graced Qatar’s skies on Monday, August 19. Despite intermittent cloud cover, hundreds of residents stayed up late to witness the spectacle.

“Organised at Old Doha Port by the Qatar Astronomy and Space Club in collaboration with the Everester Observatory, the event attracted around 300 keen observers who gathered to peer through telescopes. Last night's supermoon is the first of four this year,” Ajith Everester, founder of the Everester Observatory, told The Peninsula.

“Simply looking at the moon with the naked eye, you wouldn’t easily notice it’s larger than usual. But if you compare photographs of the moon when it’s at its farthest and closest points, the difference is clear,” explained Navin Anand, co-founder of Qatar Astronomy and Space Club.

According to NASA, a supermoon occurs when the moon is at its closest point to Earth (perigee), making it appear up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than a typical full moon. The blue moon, however, is even rarer, occurring in only 3% of full moons. It happens when a season—spring, summer, fall, or winter—sees four full moons instead of the usual three. Monday’s spectacle was one of these elusive seasonal blue moons.