Look up

On Sunday, May 31, 2026, skywatchers in Merritt, British Columbia, will treated to a functionally full moon that officially reaches its peak illumination earlier that morning at 1:45 AM. For evening viewing on Sunday, the moon will rise at **10:17 PM PDT**, emerging from the east-southeast at an azimuth of **124°**. What makes this particular celestial event highly unusual—and a stellar target for a camera setup or binoculars—is that it is a **seasonal Blue Moon** (the third of four full moons in a single astronomical season) and a **Micromoon**. Because the moon is currently sitting near apogee—its farthest point from Earth in its elliptical orbit at roughly 252,349 miles away—it will appear about 14% smaller and notably dimmer than a typical supermoon. Furthermore, because it tracks low across the southern sky at this time of year, hitting a maximum altitude of just 12.3° over the horizon at midnight, you can look forward to a prolonged, striking “moon illusion” where it mimics a massive size against the local Nicola Valley landscape, despite its technically smaller physical scale.