What is a blue moon?

Question

What is a blue moon?

Answer 1

ask your mom

Answer 2

A blue moon is commonly something that happens very rarely, but it comes from a term for when there are two full moons that happen in one month. The "blue moon" is the second full moon in that month.

"A blue moon is actually a name given to an irregularly timed full moon. Most years have twelve full moons which occur approximately monthly, but each calendar year contains those twelve full lunar cycles plus about eleven days to spare. The extra days accumulate, so that every two or three years there is an extra full moon (this happens every 2.72 years). Different definitions place the extra moon at different times - the extra moon is called a "blue moon"."

Answer 3

A metaphor ... or saying that implies something

that RARELY if EVER happens.

Answer 4

We've used Blue Moon to mean the second Full Moon in a single calendar month

CHECK THESE SEARCHES http://www.ask.com/web?qsrc=178&o=0&l=di...

Answer 5

A beer.

Answer 6

Blue Moon is a term that is used for the second full moon in a 28 day period.  It only happens a few times per year.  Hope that helps!

Answer 7

it someone showing there butt but its blue

Answer 8

its an awesome beer, made with wheat and orange peels, its great served with an orange

Answer 9

They call it a blue moon when a month has two full moons in it.

Answer 10

Blue moon

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This article is about the astronomical phenomenon. For other uses, see Blue Moon (disambiguation).

The term blue moon is commonly used metaphorically to describe a rare event, as in the saying "once in a blue moon".

A blue moon is actually a name given to an irregularly timed full moon. Most years have twelve full moons which occur approximately monthly, but each calendar year contains those twelve full lunar cycles plus about eleven days to spare. The extra days accumulate, so that every two or three years there is an extra full moon (this happens every 2.72 years). Different definitions place the extra moon at different times - the extra moon is called a "blue moon".

    * Folklore gave each moon a name according to its time of year. A moon which came too early had no folk name - and was called a blue moon.

    * The Farmer's Almanac defined blue moon as an extra full moon that occurred in a season(which would normally have three full moons). If a season had 4 full moons, the 3rd full moon was named a blue moon.

    * Until 1999, the common definition of blue moon was the 2nd full moon in a calendar month (this was a misinterpretation of the Maine Farmer's Almanac in 1946 that became commonly accepted and was discovered in 1999).

The moon has also literally had a visible blue coloring on rare occassions, caused by atmospheric disturbances.

Contents

[hide]

    * 1 Early English and Christian Usage

    * 2 Visibly blue moon

    * 3 Folklore

    * 4 Farmer's Almanac blue moons

    * 5 Calendar blue moons

          o 5.1 Time zone problems

    * 6 Blue Moons between 2005 and 2015

    * 7 See also

    * 8 References

          o 8.1 Notes

    * 9 External links

[edit] Early English and Christian Usage

The earliest recorded English usage of the term "Blue moon" was in 1528 in a pamphlet violently attacking the English Clergy,[1] entitled Rede Me and Be Not Wrothe [Read me and be not angry]: "Yf they say the mone is belewe / We must beleve that it is true" [If they say the moon is blue, we must believe that it is true].

Some interpret this "Blue Moon" as relating to absurdities and impossibilities,[2] and a similar moon-related adage was first recorded in the following year: "They would make men beleue ... that þe Moone is made of grene chese". "They would make men believe ... that the moon is made of green cheese".

An alternative interpretation uses the other old-English meaning of "belewe" (which can mean "Blue", or "Betrayer")[3] The church was responsible for the calendar and used the complex computus to calculate the most important date of Easter, which is based on the full moon. Lent falls before Easter starting at the beginning of the Lent moon cycle (late Winter moon). The next moon is the Egg moon (early Spring moon) and Easter usually falls on the first Sunday after the full Egg moon. The Clergy were responsible for telling people when it was Lent & Easter - it was critical to celebrate Lent, the trials and resurrection of Christ at the correct time. Every 2 to 3 years the Lent and Egg moons would come too early, the Clergy would have to tell people whether the moon was the Lent moon or a false one - they may have called this a "Betrayer moon".

[edit] Visibly blue moon

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 1950 and, notably, after the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, which caused the moon to appear blue for nearly two years.

[edit] Folklore

Full moons were given names in folklore, twelve each year, corresponding to times of the year and the related weather and crop needs - with folk names such as Harvest moon, Growing moon, and Snow moon (varying widely with locality & culture - see other full moon names). A year has slightly more than 12 full moons, so in the years with 13 full moons, one moon would not align with the correct season and was named a blue moon, which then re-aligned the rest of the year's twelve moons (so that corn was planted and harvested at the correct seasonal time, and so on).

The origin of the term blue moon is steeped in folklore, and its meaning has changed and acquired new nuances over time. Some folklore said that when there was a blue moon, the moon had a face and talked to the items in its moonlight.

[edit] Farmer's Almanac blue moons

In the 1800s and early 1900s, the Maine Farmer's 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. Names are given to each moon in a season - for example, the first moon of summer is called the early summer moon. The second is called the mid summer moon. The last is called the late summer moon. When a season has four moons the third is called the blue moon so that the last can continue to be called the late summer moon.

The division of the year into quarters starts with the nominal Vernal equinox - on or around March 21.[4] This is close to the astronomical seasons but follows the Christian computus used for calculations of Easter (this places each equinox evenly between the Summer & Winter solstices to calculate seasons, rather than using the actual equinox).

Some naming conventions keep the moon's seasonal name for its entire cycle - from its appearance as a new moon, through the full moon in the middle, to the next new moon. In this convention a blue moon starts with a new moon and continues until the next new moon starts the late season moon.

To calculate the moon names for the seasons using the appearance of the new moon:

   1. Locate the new moons that are nearest to the solstices and equinoxes. These are the early season moons. Mark the new moons as follows: nearest December 21 - the early winter moon, nearest March 20 - the early spring moon, nearest June 20 - the early summer moon, nearest September 22 - the early fall moon. Note: This makes the full moon of that season about 2 weeks later, always after the 20th or 21st of the month.

   2. Locate the new moons following the ones marked above. Mark them as the mid season moons. For example, the new moon that follows the early winter moon is marked as the mid winter moon. This is most often in January.

   3. Locate the new moons before the ones marked in step 1. Mark them as the late season moons of the previous season. For example, the new moon that precedes the early winter moon is the late fall moon. This is most often in November.

   4. Locate all new moons that have not been marked either early, mid, or late moons. These are the blue moons.

Seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere. Adjust the above instructions for your location.

This definition was used until 1946, when the dates & meaning provided by the Farmer's Almanac were misinterpreted in popular products (after its editors had died), and was only recovered in 1999.[5] According to this calculation the year 2008 has one blue moon that occurs in the spring.

For the year 2008, these are the dates of the moons in the northern hemisphere. These dates use the actual solstices and not the artificial solstices that give each season an equal number of days.

   1. January 8 - February 5 → Mid Winter moon

   2. February 6 - March 6 → Late Winter moon

   3. March 7 - April 4 → Early Spring moon

   4. April 5 - May 4 → Mid Spring moon

   5. May 5 - June 2 → Blue moon (full Blue Moon on May 19)

   6. June 3 - July 2 → Late Spring moon

   7. July 3 - July 31 → Early Summer moon

   8. August 1 - August 29 → Mid Summer moon

   9. August 30 - September 28 → Late Summer moon

  10. September 29 - October 27 → Early Fall moon

  11. October 28 - November 26 → Mid Fall moon

  12. November 27 - December 26 → Late Fall moon

[edit] Calendar blue moons

From 1946, people started calling a full moon a blue moon if it was the second of two full moons to occur in the same calendar month. This definition of blue moon originated from a mistake in an article in the March 1946 Sky & Telescope magazine, which misinterpreted the dates & meaning provided by the Farmer's Almanac. It was helped to popularity when Earth & Sky used this definition in the radio series Star Date for some years, and as a result the game Trivial Pursuit used it in a question and answer about blue moon. It was recovered only in 1999 when researchers for Sky & Telescope magazine discovered the error. They noticed that the Maine Farmer's Almanac from 1829 to 1937 reported blue moons that did not fit the meaning of the term calendar blue moon.[5] Sky & Telescope printed a retraction and correction though by this time the calendar definition was in common use.

Calendar Blue moons occur infrequently, in years with thirteen full moons. There are also some years in which there is no full moon in February at all, since February is slightly shorter than the time from one full moon to the next. This condition, known as a black moon, gives additional 'blue' moons in the preceding and following months (namely January and March). The last time this occurred was in 1999, and the next occurrence will be in 2018, according to UTC.

The previous calendar blue moon (based on UTC) was on June 30, 2007. The first full moon would have occurred on June 1, 2007. That was May 31, 2007 in the Western Hemisphere, making that full moon the second occurrence in May in the Western Hemisphere (see below); the nex

Answer 11

When there is a Full moon 3 days in a row. like a turkey in Bowling.

Answer 12

When there is a new moon ( (the moon goes away completely) twice in one calendar month, the second time is called a "blue moon."

Answer 13

Two full moons in the same month, the second is a "Blue Moon."

Answer 14

a new moon. when the moon is out, but no one can see it b/c it is inbetween the sun and the earth.

Answer 15

:0) We had one not too long ago. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bluemoon1... This will give you all of the details, it's interesting. So was your question :0)

Answer 16

Second full moon in a month

Answer 17

Sometimes there are two full moons in one month.  The second one is the blue moon.  They are rare, hence the saying "once in a blue moon".

Answer 18

It is a second full moon in one month.  Because it seldom occurs, the phrase "once in a blue moon" means very seldom.

Once in a Blue Moon ... is a common way of saying not very often, but what exactly is a Blue Moon?

According to the popular definition, it is the second Full Moon to occur in a single calendar month.

The average interval between Full Moons is about 29.5 days, whilst the length of an average month is roughly 30.5 days. This makes it very unlikely that any given month will contain two Full Moons, though it does sometimes happen.

On average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons in every century, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years.

Answer 19

Isnt blue moon that acholic drink at Longhorn steak house

Answer 20

Not sure, I think it has to do with a lunar eclipse or something like that.

However, the term ONCE IN  A BLUE MOON is used to signify the rareness of an event.

Answer 21

a sad lonely mooon!

Answer 22

A moon that's blue.