[ad_1]
Credit, fake images
The ‘Blue Moon’ can be seen on the night of October 31 when the sky is clear.
It is not really blue. It is a full moon, like any other, the color most full moons are seen in: light gray, milky white, or silver.
What makes this phenomenon strange, which folklore has called “Blue Moon”, is that it is the second full moon in a single month, when it is normal to have only one.
The lunar cycle, the period in which all the phases of the Moon occur, repeats every 29.5 days or more.
For the “Blue Moon” to occur, two coincidences are required: the first full moon must occur on the first or second day of the month, and this month must have 31 days. Therefore, a second full moon is likely to appear.
This phenomenon is known as “Blue Moon”.
The month of February, which has 28 days, for example, will never see a “Blue Moon”.
Credit, fake images
The Blue Moon appeared like this in Washington, United States, in 2015
When is the ‘Blue Moon’ of 2020?
The Blue Moon is an unusual phenomenon that occurs only every 2.5 years.
The last time this happened was on March 31, 2018.
This year, it will appear in the sky on the night of October 31 to November 1, when many countries celebrate Halloween. In Mexico, the day marks the beginning of the Día de Muertos festival.
There was already a full moon on October 1 and, at the end of the month, we will be able to see the second.
Credit, fake images
This year the Blue Moon coincides with Halloween.
Why Blue Moon?
As NASA explains on its website, the term Blue Lua emerged in the 1940s.
At that time, the Maine Farmer’s Almanac (an annual publication that since 1818 has provided forecasts of meteorological events in the US and Canada) offered a definition of the Blue Moon so complicated that many astronomers had a hard time understanding it.
To explain blue moons in plain language, Sky & Telescope magazine published an article in 1946 titled ‘Once in a blue moon’. The author, James Hugh Pruett (1886-1955), quoted the 1937 Maine almanac and said, “The second (Full Moon) in a month, as I interpret it, is called the Blue Moon.”
And thus the modern Blue Moon was born. She inspired books, movies and music like blue Moon, composed in 1934 by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart, recorded by countless artists such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Billie Holliday and Billy Eckstine.
Credit, fake images
Indonesia’s Krakatoa volcano spewed ash again on April 11, 2020
Moons and volcanoes
Although the Blue Moon does not appear to be blue, there are moons of that color.
But they can only look blue after a volcanic eruption.
In 1883, after the Krakatoa volcano earthquake in Indonesia, people said that almost every night it was possible to see blue moons.
With the force of the eruption, similar to a 100-megaton nuclear bomb, clouds of ash rose to the top of Earth’s atmosphere and its particles made the moon look blue.
There were also reports of blue moons in Mexico in 1983, after the El Chichón volcano eruption, and in Washington State in 1980, after the Mount Santa Helena eruption.
Have you seen our new videos on Youtube? Subscribe to our channel!
