Once in a blue moon…..not true!The night sky on Friday, the 31st of July, held a pleasant sig
Once in a blue moon…..not true!The night sky on Friday, the 31st of July, held a pleasant sight, and a rare one according to some. It is called a blue moon night. Sometimes, the moon has been known to have a bluish tinge because of smoke or dust particles in the atmosphere, resulting from calamitous events like a volcano. However, few areas will actually see this on Friday.For most viewers, the moon is neither blue nor was this full moon that rare. According to the modern definition, a blue moon is a second full moon night occurring in a single month. The next time you will find another such night is in January 2018.Records of the term “a blue moon” go back to at least the early 1800s, with a slightly different usage. In that case, the term was used when a season had four full moons; the term “Blue Moon” was applied to the third one. A lunar cycle, from one full moon to next, lasts for 28 days, but in our calendar year, each month other than Februrary is 30 days or more, as our calendar is based on earth’s revolution around the Sun. So there is a discrepancy of two days, on average, between solar and lunar month, which leads to two full moon nights once every two to three years. Interestingly, since February has only 28 days, it is impossible for February to have a Blue Moon during a normal year. So, have a wonderful time gazing up to the second full moon night of this month.–RB.CNN’s take on the event: http://cnn.it/1MAYePyImage: http://nyti.ms/1fNVsZphttp://www.obliquity.com/astro/blue-st.html -- source link
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