On our way to friends last night, the moon was nowhere to be seen — a familiar feature of a British summer up north. Hours later as everyone came outside to see us off, there it was, brighter than a bright moon — and bigger than a big moon.
No such thing, came a chorus from the blokes, it’s an optical illusion, there’s an explanation for it.
Well they wuz wrong!
Yes, it was a blue moon, we knew that. So-called because it achieved its full rotundity for the second time in a month — but the extra special treat is that it was at its perigee, when earth, moon and sun are all aligned, the moon being at its closest approach to earth.
And I discovered today that some astrologer called Richard Nolle named this phenomenon a supermoon in 1979. Well you gotta be famous for something.

Debussy described it so very mellifluously, as does my mate Paul 🙂