Blue moon wows observers around the world (photos)
Blue moon wows observers around the world (photos)"
- Select a language for the TTS:
- UK English Female
- UK English Male
- US English Female
- US English Male
- Australian Female
- Australian Male
- Language selected: (auto detect) - EN
Play all audios:
Skywatchers all over the world jumped at the chance to view and photograph Friday's (Aug. 31) full moon, the last so-called "blue moon" until July 2015. Friday's full
moon was the second one to rise during the month of August, following the full moon of Aug. 1. This qualifies it as a blue moon, according to the popularly accepted (but incorrect)
definition of the term. "Blue moon" orginally referred to the third full moon in a season that has four full moons instead of the usual three. But in 1946, a writer for "Sky
and Telescope" magazine erroneously reported the second-full-moon-in-month meaning, and the definition stuck. Friday's blue moon rose on the same day that late astronaut Neil
Armstrong was memorialized in Cincinnati. Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, died Aug. 25 following complications from a recent heart surgery. Several skywatchers thought of
the famous moonwalker when they looked up last night. [Gallery: August 2012 Blue Moon] "From Michigan, we are thinking of you, Neil," wrote Dennis Daniels, who photographed the
full disk of the moon Friday night. Blue moons aren't actually blue, unless clouds of smoke or volcanic ash in Earth's atmosphere lend them that particular hue. Rather, they
usually look like any other full moon in the sky. [Photos: The Blue Moon and Full Moons of 2012] However, some sky photographers, such as Johan Clausen of Denmark, used photographic effects
to get pictures of blue-looking moons. Blue moons occur because lunar months and calendar months aren't perfectly synched up. It takes the moon 29.5 days to zip around our planet,
during which time we see the satellite go through all of its phases. But Earth's months all have 30 or 31 days (except February), so once in a while two full moons get squeezed into a
single month. The moon looked markedly different from various locations around the world because of the different weather and atmospheric affects in each location. An almost red moon was
photographed over Evergreen Valley in Olympia, Wash., by Mary P. Bowman. Before Friday night, the last blue moon occurred on Dec. 31, 2009. The next blue moon will come along on July 31,
2015. The phrase "once in a blue moon" implies that the celestial phenomenon is incredibly rare, but it's really not. Blue moons occur on average once every 2.7 years, and
sometimes much more frequently. In 1999, for example, two of them rose within three months. The next year that will see two blue moons is 2018. If you snapped any good photos of
Friday's full moon and would like them to be considered for a future story or gallery, please send them to SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz at cmoskowitz@space.com.
Trending News
Pomona : construction ban extendedConcerned that low-quality apartment projects may be blighting some neighborhoods, the City Council has voted to extend ...
Cbi opposes dawood aide farooq takla’s plea for legal counselThe CBI counsel on Monday opposed the applications filed by the advocate of Farooq Takla, who is an aide of mafia don Da...
Why Chandra Shekhar Azad's politics of grand gestures is vitalIt was back in 2017 when, for the first time, I came across the names of Bhim Army and Chandra Shekhar Azad through a do...
Mlb all-star game to feature self-serve beer machinesTarget Field was already one of the best ballparks in baseball, and it just got even better — assuming you love beer and...
Goldman Sachs plans BITCOIN trades despite admitting 'heightened risk'The collision between the world’s most infamous bank and the volatile cryptocurrency has been building over the last six...
Latests News
Blue moon wows observers around the world (photos)Skywatchers all over the world jumped at the chance to view and photograph Friday's (Aug. 31) full moon, the last s...
Sameer wankhede's tenure with mumbai ncb endsNEW DELHI, JAN 3 : The tenure of controversial NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede with the federal anti-narcotics...
Best weight loss breakfast revealed - how much to eat in the morningWeight loss starts with a good breakfast, at least according to one scientific study. It has long been known that a good...
Zomato acquires ubereats india in all-stock dealUberEats, which launched in India in 2017, had to face tough competition from Zomato and Swiggy, which, by then, were al...
Notes | NatureABSTRACT THE council of the Geological Society of London has decided to award the medals and funds this year as follows:...