Celestial Events in 2023: Full Moons, Supermoons, Lunar Eclipses, and Meteor Showers
Written by Reananda Hidayat Permono
Completed Master of Science - MS, Petroleum Geology from Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
Exploraphones.com
It will be a beautiful year for star-gazers as meteor showers, eclipses, full moons, and other celestial events will light up the sky in 2023.
A comet discovered in March 2022, C/2022 E3 (ZTF), will make its closest pass to Earth on February 2.
Moreover, get your telescope and binoculars ready; here are top sky events for 2023:
Full moons and supermoons
Usually, there are 12 full moons in a year - one for each month.
But there will be 13 full moons in 2023, with two appearing in August.
According to NASA, the second full moon in August 2023 is known as a blue moon, which occurs every 2.5 years.
Lunar and solar eclipses
There will be two lunar eclipses and two solar eclipses in 2023.
A total solar eclipse will happen on April 20 and be visible from Southeast Asia, Antarctica, and Australia.
Meanwhile, a Western Hemisphere-sweeping solar eclipse will appear on October 14 and can be seen across North, Central, and South America.
Meteor showers
Find an open area that isn’t littered with city lights and provides a broad view of the sky.
You can see meteors every couple of minutes from late evening until dawn.
Here are some peak dates of meteor showers in 2023:
- April (22-23)
- May (5-6)
- July (30-31)
- August (12-13)
- October (20-21)
- November (4-5, 11-12, 17-18)
- December (13-14, 21-22)