Blue Moons occur about as soon as each 33 months and, no, the Moon would not flip blue.
Irrespective of what number of Full Moons seem in any given timespan, its shade won’t truly change to blue. Credit score: John Chumack.
Blue Moons are recognized for the folklore surrounding their look within the skies. However the true factor has much less to do with its shade and extra with the timing of the 12 months’s Full Moons.
The subsequent Blue Moon is Aug, 19, 2024. It’s this 12 months’s just one and is a “seasonal” one. Right here’s why.
There are two kinds of Blue Moons: seasonal and month-to-month. A seasonal one is “the third Full Moon of an astronomical season that has 4 Full Moons” and occurs between the summer season solstice and the autumn equinox, in line with NASA. A month-to-month Blue Moon is the second Full Moon in a month that options two Full Moons.
The subsequent month-to-month Blue Moon is Might 31, 2026. The last was Aug. 31, 2023. By the way in which, it’s doable that those that reside in sure time zones might not expertise a Blue Moon. Right here’s how Astronomy Magazine explained it in 2004: “Astronomers calculate the moment of Full Moon utilizing Common Time (UT), an ordinary that’s, for our functions right here, equal to Greenwich Imply Time. For those who occur to reside in a time zone far sufficient away from Greenwich, England, shifting the UT time of Full Moon to your native time could also be sufficient to advance the date to the primary day of the brand new month, which suggests it’s not a Blue Moon. Relying in your time zone, the Blue Moon of July 2004 occurred in both July or a month later, with the second Full Moon of August.”
How uncommon are they?
The idiom suggests a uncommon occasion that occurs after a very long time or by no means in any respect, however they occur about once every 33 months. Month-to-month Blue Moons occur when there’s one Full Moon firstly of a calendar month, so there are a minimum of 29.5 days between the 2 Moons. Both sort will happen about each two or three years. Each two and a half years, there’s a thirteenth Full Moon in a calendar 12 months. This occurs as a result of Moon phases happen each 29.5 days or 354 days for 12 Full Moon cycles. As a result of that is lower than twelve months, there’s a Blue Moon round each two and a half years.
Between 1550 and 2650, 408 seasonal Moons and 456 month-to-month Blue Moons occurred or will happen. Each seasonal and month-to-month can occur in the identical 12 months. Almanacs first started to consult with the additional full Moons as Blue, in line with the Encyclopedia Britannica. An error in {a magazine} “that the additional moon was the second in a calendar month quite than the fourth in a season, [provided] a brand new which means that ultimately crept into huge utilization within the Eighties.”
Does the Moon flip blue?
No, the moon doesn’t flip blue. Nonetheless, atmospheric circumstances like smoke or volcanic ash could make the moon seem indigo.
