This article is SO much fun. Haven't seen anything like it in a blue moon.
No, the moon won't actually be blue -- and no, it's not the second full moon in August.
Tuesday's full moon will be the the first "seasonal blue moon," meaning it's the third of four full moons in a season, in nearly three years.
The official definition comes from the August 1937 page in the Maine Farmers' almanac, explaining a Blue Moon is when "one of the four seasons would contain four full moons instead of the usual three."
"There are seven Blue Moons in a Lunar Cycle of nineteen years," continued the Almanac. "In olden times the almanac makers had much difficulty calculating the occurrence of the Blue Moon and this uncertainty gave rise to the expression 'Once in a Blue Moon.'"
And if you thought a Blue Moon meant the second full moon in a month, you're not alone: The common misconception was started when James Hugh Pruett defined, wrongly, a Blue Moon in an article in the March 1946 issue Sky & Telescope magazine:
"Seven times in 19 years there were -- and still are -- 13 full moons in a year. This gives 11 months with one full moon each and one with two. This second in a month, so I interpret it, was called Blue Moon.
And yes, a moon can sometimes actually appear blue, usually when a volcanic eruption or a bad fire temporarily changes the composition of the atmosphere.
In 1883, the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa exploded, sending ash high into the air. The particles in the ash cloud were just the right size -- about 1 micron in diameter -- to scatter red light, allowing white moonlight to shine through clouds to appear blue, or sometimes green, for years worldwide after the eruption.
It happened again after the eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State in 1980 and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991.
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PICTURES OF BLUE MOON OUTSIDE
GRANDMA G'S HOME TUESDAY, 8/20/13
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Tuesday was my last day in San Diego. Bill and I stopped to view the seals in the cove. They were not very active, but we did observe a few and Grandma G looking like the wild professor.
San Diego connection;
Jude, Gemma, Gerry, Bill, Grandma G
Goodbye, San Diego.....
If you look closely you can see the narrow road and hairpin turns
Prehistoric Nautilus shell
Jude, Gemma, Gerry, Bill, Grandma G
Goodbye, San Diego.....
Hello, very warm Portland---almost 90 degrees.
Today, Wednesday, was a great day to stay inside with air conditioning while the temp again soared to 90. It was a good day to relax, do some stretches, blog a bit and get ready for a senior day trip tomorrow. (Well, I can stay home in later years when I am old.)
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FLASHBACK;
THE 3 SENIOR SISTERS
GREAT CROSS COUNTRY ROAD TRIP
AUGUST 20 AND 21, 2012
The evening before we left Glacier National Park the four of us had a long discussion of what route to take. Sometime during that day the "service engine soon" light went on in my car. Should we drive across the "Going to the Sun" road through the mountains and risk car breakdown or go several miles out of the way through lower, well travelled highways? All evening I was for the conservative, safe choice. In the morning, however, it was "What the heck, let's just go across the mountains".
If you look closely you can see the narrow road and hairpin turns
Prehistoric Nautilus shell
This has been a good 2 "once in a blue moon" days in the life of Grandma G.
"The Lord watches over you---the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night." (Psalm 121:5 & 6)
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