Friday, July 31, 2015

Blue moon of July


"Blue moon, you saw me standing alone"
drinking a blue Moon Beer
  wearing my Blue Moon beads
wishing for BlueMoon granite countertops
remembering the Blue Moon Café
 and the Blue Moon Diner
and the Blue Moon cabins 
thinking about Blue Moon, Maryland


Put very simply a "blue moon" is the second moon in one month.  Though they are thought to be rare occurrences, voiced by the expression "once in a Blue Moon" the second full moon in a month occurs  about14 or15 times in 20 years to 7 times in19 years depending on how you recon them, and there is more than one way to do that.  The last year with two blue moons was 1999,  some years have no Blue Moon.    At one time the Blue Moon was defined as the fourth full moon in a season.  Anyway I will provide some more information on this and the belief that the "Blue Moon" is a recent or 'trendy' concept, farther down the page.   I can recall hearing about there being a "Blue Moon" from my Grandfather as we sat on his front porch listening to the  whippoorwills and crickets, and watching the full moon rise. That was the 50s, I was very young.  Occasionally a car would go past on the highway, as we sat there looking at the moonrise.   I remember climbing the stairs and falling asleep watching the moon, and wondering when it was going to turn blue.  
Mystified at why Blue Moons do not have names like other full moons was delighted to find this explanation from http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bluemoon1.html


The Other Kind of Blue Moon

The older definition, which is recorded in early issues of the Maine Farmer's Almanac, states that the blue moon is the third full moon in a season that has four full moons. The full Moon in May 2016, will be this type of blue moon. Why would one want to identify the third full moon in a season of four full moons? The answer is complex, and has to do with the Christian ecclesiastical calendar.
Some years have an extra full moon—13 instead of 12. Since the identity of the moons was important in the ecclesiastical calendar (the Paschal Moon, for example, used to be crucial for determining the date of Easter), a year with a 13th moon skewed the calendar, since there were names for only 12 moons. By identifying the extra, 13th moon as a blue moon, the ecclesiastical calendar was able to stay on track.
For more background information on the controversy over the two definitions of blue moon, see the Sky and Telescope article, "What's a Blue Moon?" In it they explain how the two different definitions of a blue moon came about—including their own role in introducing the second, modern definition.






And this from SkyandTelescope.com
The Second Full Moon in a Month
 Finally we arrive at the most recent meaning of all, the second full Moon in a month. I first heard it in 1988. At the end of May that year, when a second full Moon occurred, radio stations and newspapers everywhere carried an item on this bit of "old folklore," as they called it, drawing on an international wire story. Across North America the blue Moon caught the public's imagination. In the following months, restaurants, clothing stores, and bookstores opened under the name "Blue Moon." An artist I know did a set of night landscapes that month; he calls them his Blue Moon series. At the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore & Language Archive we get calls from all over, from people wondering about bits of folklore. And that month we got calls about blue Moons.
I searched high and low for an earlier example of this usage, or any other name for two full Moons in a single calendar month. But the search was in vain — this meaning seemed to have no history. I did find information on the other meanings of "blue Moon," but not this one, number seven.
Then in December 1990, with another "blue Moon" coming on, I started getting more calls and decided to write about it in the local newspaper. I searched harder this time, exhausting all the usual sources: specialized dictionaries, indexes of proverbial sayings, and regional collections of folklore. A brand-new edition of the huge Oxford English Dictionary had recently come out, but even it omitted this particular meaning. "Blue Moon" seemed to be a truly modern piece of folklore, masquerading as something old.


OK,OK if you weren't confused enough. there is this with a loverly picture a full moon in Maine, excerpted from Sky and Telescope
In an article entitled Once in a Blue Moon, folklorist Philip Hiscock traced the calendrical meaning of the term "Blue Moon" to the Maine Farmers' Almanac for 1937. But a page from that almanac belies the second-full-Moon-in-a-month interpretation.

With help from Margaret Vaverek (Southwest Texas State University) and several other librarians, we obtained more than 40 editions of the Maine Farmers' Almanac from the period 1819 to 1962. These refer to more than a dozen Blue Moons, and not one of them is the second full Moon in a month. What's going on here

                                                           ~~Fitz Hugh Lane



So it would seem that Blue moons are all just called the Blue moon of whatever month.   But as I was watching  the waxing gibbous moon rise last night I thought how much it looked like a schooner's sails, so  it is at least to me,  it is the Schooner Moon.   And gentle readers may the Schooner Moon bring only good things your way.  


I was just about to click "publish" when I decided to get some more coffee and then reread it......long story short from the pages of the London Telegraph

Blue moon: where and when to view the rare cosmic event set to light up the sky

Tonight's supermoon coincides with the start of the British meteor season and the first blue moon in three years. The next blue moon isn't due until 2018


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When will the 'super' blue moon appear?


A rare blue moon will be visible in the sky tonight for the first time in three years. The event coincides with the start of the meteor observing season which will peak in August with the Persieds meteor shower.
The phenomenon occurs when there is a second full moon in one calendar month. It is uncommon because the full moon cycle is 29.5 days.

Where is the best place to see it and at what time?


The blue supermoon is at its fullest during the daytime at 11.43am, but as the sun goes down it is best seen in the south where skies will be clearer. Rain clouds could block out the satellite further North.
It is also a ‘supermoon’ which occurs when the Moon is at its closest approach to the Earth, known as perigee. It means the blue moon will appear especially big and bright.

People ride the Luna Park Swing Ride as the "supermoon" rises on Coney Island, USA.

Why is it called a blue moon? Is it really blue?


The first reference to a Blue Moon comes from a proverb recorded in 1528, according to the Oxford English Dictionary : If they say the Moon is blue, we must believe that it is true.
The infrequent nature of this lunar event led to the phrase "once in a blue moon" to signify a rare occurrence. It does not actually mean the moon will be blue.
The reason why the phenomenon is known as a "blue moon" is not certain, although according to one explanation the term means "betrayer moon" ("belewe" in Old English).
On other occasions the moon can actually take on a blue colouring but these are the result of ash spewed into the sky by volcanoes.
The first full moon was spotted on 1 July and the second will appear on the last day of the month – Friday, July 31.
This appearance is the first such occurrence in three years since the last blue moon month in August 2012, the next will not be until January 2018.
Astronomers predict it will only happen on 12 occasions between now and 2043.

The "supermoon" rises in Alabama, USA.

What will I be able to see?


Peter Drew, of the Astronomy Centre at Todmorden, Lancashire, said the sight is actually fairly “disappointing”.
“A blue moon occurs when two full moons can be seen in the same month of a given year.
“As the moon’s period is 28 days it is possible for this to happen in any month other than February which is too short a duration.
“Due to the moon’s orbit this phenomenon doesn’t happen every qualifying month so the occurrence is infrequent, the last one was on August 31, 2012.
“Needless to say, the moon will not appear blue, it’s the frequency that causes the interest.
“The moon at full is quite disappointing telescopically as the face on illumination by the sun drowns out the detailed features that usually make the moon such an awe-inspiring spectacle.”

The annual meteor season has just begun

When does the meteor observing season begin?


The Blue Moon marks the start of meteor season in Britain which runs through until January and peaks in August.
Already the first shooting stars from the Perseids meteor shower are visible, radiating from below the W of Cassiopeia.
The southern Delta Aquarids also peaked this week and the Alpha Capricornids will reach their maximum over the weekend.
Unfortunately, the peaks of these latter two showers are hit somewhat this year by the Full Moon of July 31.
Moonlight will also affect observations of the early Perseids - following Full Moon, the Moon is very slow to move out of the evening sky and is also moving closer to the Perseid radiant.
From around Aug 7 onwards, however, the Moon's interference rapidly diminishes and it will be absent from the night sky for Perseid maximum (Aug 12-13).

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