13 full moons, including 2 supermoons and 1 Blue moon, to appear during 2020

Skygazers’ calendars are filling up in 2020 -- full moons, which appear after a full rotation every 27.3 days, will be in the sky 13 times this year, including two supermoons and two full moons in one month.

The first full moon, a wolf moon, will appear at 2:21 p.m. Jan. 10. The moon will appear full Thursday night and after its peak Friday, according to NASA.

There will be two supermoons (March 9 and April 7). A supermoon appears larger because it has become full when its orbit is closer to Earth.

October will have two full moons; the first on Oct. 1, making the second, Oct. 31, a blue moon. Blue moons appear about ever three years, however the next time a Blue Moon appears during Halloween will be 2039, NJ.com reported.

Different cultures have given names to full moons which are applied for the whole month. The names often parallel seasons; harvest moon in September or October and the cold moon in December, according to the Farmers Almanac.

Full moons will not be the only cause for stargazers to look to the sky.

The first major meteor shower of 2020 lights up the night this weekend.

While many meteor showers last a few days, the Quadrantids meteor shower is expected to be on display for about six hours, with about 60 to 200 fireball meteors at its peak Friday night into Saturday morning, according to CBS News.

The Quadrantids originated from an asteroid, not a comet, like most meteor showers. Although it was first seen in 1825, it was not until 2003 that the asteroid, 2003 EH1, was discovered by researchers at the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search, according to NASA.

The meteor shower gets its name from the defunct constellation Quadrans Muralis, which is between the Bootes and Draco constellations, near the end of the “handle” on the Big Dipper. The Quadrantids is also known as the Bootids, because it appears to come from the Bootes constellation.

Quadrans Muralis was left off a 1922 constellation map created by the International Astronomical Union and is no longer a recognized constellation.

The meteor shower is expected to begin around 3 a.m. Saturday.

© 2020 Cox Media Group