Blue Moon Day
There was a seasonal Blue Moon on Saturday, May 21, , and the next one will be in the spring of The third full moon of that season will be on May 18, The phrase "once in a Blue Moon" has been around for more than years, according to Philip Hiscock, a folklorist at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.
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The meaning evolved to something akin to "never," according to Hiscock. But, never say never. It turns out that the moon can appear bluish, as it did in after the volcano Krakatoa erupted.
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So, the meaning of "once in a blue moon" changed from "never" to "rarely," according to Hiscock. The seasonal definition for the term Blue Moon has been traced back to the August issue of the Maine Farmer's Almanac, which explained that the moon "usually comes full 12 times in a year, three times for each season. Occasionally, however, there will come a year when there are 13 full moons during a year, not the usual And that extra full moon also meant that one of the four seasons would contain four full moons instead of the usual three.
The almanac followed certain rules for what to call each moon. For example, the last full moon of winter had to fall during Lent; it was called the Lenten Moon. The moon circles Earth every 27 days, but the geometry of the positioning of the Earth, sun and moon is the same every In other words, there are So it's unusual to have two full moons in a or day month.
Also, February, which has only 28 or 29 days during leap years , will never have a Blue Moon. Enjoy tonight's spectacle, because the next Blue Moon won't happen until Oct.
Sometimes, however, the moon does look blue. But it has to do with atmospheric conditions — not calendar time. A famous example occurred in , after the volcano Krakatoa erupted. The moon appeared blue because of all the dust the volcano lofted into the air. Dust storms or forest fires can also generate this effect.
What is a blue moon?
The extra full moon necessarily falls in one of the four seasons, giving that season four full moons instead of the usual three, and, hence, a blue moon. The earliest recorded English usage of the term blue moon is found in an anti-clerical pamphlet attacking the Roman clergy, and cardinal Thomas Wolsey in particular by two converted Greenwich friars, William Roy and Jerome Barlow, published in under the title Rede me and be nott wrothe, for I say no thynge but trothe.
The relevant passage reads: O churche men are wyly foxes [ It is not clear from the context that this refers to intercalation ; the context of the passage is a dialogue between two priest's servants, spoken by the character "Jeffrey" a brefe dialoge betwene two preste's servauntis, named Watkyn and Ieffraye.
The intention may simply be that Jeffrey makes an absurd statement, "the moon is blue", to make the point that priests require laymen to believe in statements even if they are patently false. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Maine Farmers' Almanac listed blue moon dates for farmers. These correspond to the third full moon in a quarter of the year when there were four full moons normally a quarter year has three full moons.
What is a blue moon? | Popular Science
Full moon names were given to each lunation in a season. The seasons used were those of the mean tropical year , equal in length, as opposed to the astronomical seasons which vary in length because the earth's speed in its orbit round the sun is not uniform. To compare, in the equal seasons began at 1. When a season has four full moons the third is called the "blue moon" so that the last can continue to be called with the proper name for that season.
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This gives 11 months with one full moon each and one with two. This second in a month, so I interpret it, was called Blue Moon.
When does a Blue Moon occur?
The most literal meaning of blue moon is when the moon not necessarily a full moon appears to a casual observer to be unusually bluish, which is a rare event. The effect can be caused by smoke or dust particles in the atmosphere, as has happened after forest fires in Sweden and Canada in and , [13] and after the eruption of Krakatoa in , which caused the moon to appear blue for nearly two years.
Other less potent volcanoes have also turned the moon blue. Helens in and Mount Pinatubo in On September 23, , several muskeg fires that had been smoldering for several years in Alberta, Canada, suddenly blew up into major—and very smoky—fires.
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Winds carried the smoke eastward and southward with unusual speed, and the conditions of the fire produced large quantities of oily droplets of just the right size about 1 micrometre in diameter to scatter red and yellow light. Wherever the smoke cleared enough so that the sun was visible, it was lavender or blue.
Ontario, Canada, and much of the east coast of the United States were affected by the following day, and two days later, observers in Britain reported an indigo sun in smoke-dimmed skies, followed by an equally blue moon that evening. The key to a blue moon is having lots of particles slightly wider than the wavelength of red light 0.
It is rare, but volcanoes sometimes produce such clouds, as do forest fires. Ash and dust clouds thrown into the atmosphere by fires and storms usually contain a mixture of particles with a wide range of sizes, with most smaller than 1 micrometer, and they tend to scatter blue light.