A rare blue Micromoon will shine in SC skies soon but will you get to see it? What to expect

Coming soon to the sky near you — a rare Blue Micromoon, the second full moon in May.

It will peak in South Carolina at 4:45 a.m. Sunday but whether you’ll be able to see it is, as they say, up in the air.

Forecasters are calling for rain and clouds on Sunday, as well as on Saturday and Monday, which are also good times to see the phenomenon under mostly clear skies.

May started with the Flower Moon, so named by the Algonquin people to symbolize abundance, growth, and the peak of spring. It is said to represent the time of year when the most sunlight shines and flowers bloom.

The upcoming Blue Moon, called that because of its rarity and not the color, will be some 252,360 miles from Earth, the most distant full micromoon of the three taking place in 2026. The average distance the moon is to Earth is 238,900 miles.

The blue moon will look like the smallest full moon this year. Next time that happens will be Dec. 31, 2028.

A full moon is defined as the moment when the sun and the moon are on opposite sides of Earth, and the visible side of the moon is fully lit up, said Time and Date, an online resource for time and time zone tools started as a student project by Steffen Thorsen in 1995.

Time and Date said a micromoon appears 12.5% to 14.1% smaller than a super full moon and about 5.9% to 6.9% smaller than the average full moon.

EarthSky said the June Strawberry Moon could also be a micromoon, meaning there will be three micromoons in a row.

This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 6:00 AM with the headline "A rare blue Micromoon will shine in SC skies soon but will you get to see it? What to expect."