Blue Moon

Once in a BLUE MOON :

Most of us might have heard the phrase Once in a blue moon but did we ever see the blue moon!  Well on 31st Aug 2012, there is an opportunity to actually see a Blue Moon. Don’t believe! read on.

We know, as the Moon orbits the Earth, it waxes & wanes through a cycle of phases over a month. Precisely speaking this is not true; in fact, the lunar month is 29.53 days long and not 30 days. This means Moon arrives half a day earlier every month. This “half day” mismatch causes the full moon to advance itself every month.

Each calendar year thus usually contains 12 full moons plus an excess of roughly eleven days. Therefore after about every 2.7154 years, there is an extra full moon. During such time, it’s possible to have a full moon early in the month and still fit in a second full moon during the month; this 2nd full moon in a month or the 13th in year is called a Blue Moon.

A Blue Moon is thus the 2nd full moon in a calendar month, which is not timed to the regular monthly pattern, often rare and un-common. Such an attribute of the Moon is used sparingly in the phrase “once in a blue moon” to colloquially describe a rare or unusual event.

Also calendar-makers of yesteryear used little red moon symbols to mark the three named full moons of each season. But for the rarely appearing 4th full moon in a season/2nd in a month, no name was assigned (in farmer’s almanac), but a little blue moon symbol was used to denote such odd appearance of the moon. That’s another story about the origin of the term.

The most literal meaning of Blue Moon is when the moon appears to be unusually bluish. The effect can be caused by smoke or dust particles in the atmosphere, as has happened after forest fires in Sweden and Canada in 1950 and, notably, after the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, which caused the moon to appear blue for nearly two years. The particles in the atmosphere have to be about one micrometre in diameter; under these circumstances, long-wavelength light (Red) is scattered out of the line of sight and short-wavelength light (Blue), is selectively transmitted into a viewer's eyes, rendering the Moon to appear Blue.

This August (2012) has 31 days, and that the first full moon, named “Full Sturgeon Moon” appeared on 1st. Which means, a 2nd full moon can fit into the month. This also means, on August 31st 2012 we will have a “Blue Moon” on the evening sky!

 Will it be Blue, literally or astronomically? One needs to really watch the moon and find out.

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