'It does look glorious': Astronomer, astrologer share insight on blue supermoon

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Many of us had our eyes on the sky last night, checking out the super blue moon.

With tons of viewers sending us great photographs on social media, we found out what makes the blue supermoon so special.

Jean Creighton, the director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at UW-Milwaukee, explained a super blue moon is a combination of two things.

A blue moon means we had two full moons in the same month, one on Aug. 1 and one on Aug. 30.

Wednesday's full moon was also supermoon, which means it's closer than usual.

"The moon looks bigger than usual, and it looks brighter. It can look up to 12% brighter," Creighton said. "So, I'm not surprised that people are impressed, because it does look glorious."

According to Creighton, the moon is usually 238,000 miles from us, and on Wednesday it was only 224,000 miles from Earth.

For those interested in astrology and spirituality, there's special interest in the blue super moon.

The super blue moon happens in Pisces.

Annette McKinley, astrologer and owner of Intuitive Astrology & Tarot By Annette, said it will most affect people who are Pisces, Virgo, Cancer, and Capricorn signs, by offering a 'wake up call.

"Moving on, grounding our energy, getting real," McKinley said. "It's very positive. It's the start of a whole new chapter of many people's lives."

Hopefully you got great pictures on Wednesday, because according to NASA, the next blue super moon will occur in January 2037.