This current end of the week’s full moon isn’t any old moon, it’ll be a blue moon, according to NASA.
However, no, it won’t really be blue.
Turns out there are two different ways to have a blue moon.
The best-known meaning of a blue moon is to have two full moons in a calendar month — the second is known as a blue moon.
As per NASA that occurs on average about every 2.5 years.
However, another approach to define a blue moon is as the third full moon in a season with four full moons. That definition returns to 1528, and that is the one being utilized for this weekend’s full moon.
Astronomical spring (in the Northern Hemisphere) keeps running from the spring equinox on March 20 to the mid year solstice on June 21.
Amid that time frame there will be four full moons:
- Walk 20 (worm moon)
- April 19 (pink moon)
- May 18 (blossom moon and blue moon)
- June 17 (strawberry moon)
Since the strawberry moon precedes the solstice that makes four full moons amid the spring. That additionally makes Saturday’s full moon a blue moon.
As indicated by EarthSky astronomers, the last regular blue moon was on May 21, 2016.
The moon will hit 100 percent fullness on Saturday evening at 4:12 p.m. CDT, as indicated by NASA, however it will seem full from Friday night as the weekend progressed.
May’s full moon likewise has a few different nicknames.
Local Americans utilized their own names for every month’s full moon, as indicated by the Farmer’s Almanac, which first beginning publishing the names during the 1930s.
May’s full moon has likewise been known as the blossom moon, the corn planting moon and the milk moon.
The following blue moon will fall on Halloween in 2020, as indicated by the National Weather Service.
There have been moons that have really seemed blue, however they are uncommon. One of the better-realized precedents was in 1883 when the Indonesian fountain of liquid magma Krakatoa emitted, regurgitating huge amounts of cinder high into the atmosphere.
The particles that make up the fiery debris were little enough to disperse the red light and let different hues radiate through, as indicated by NASA – causing the moon to seem blue.
Blue-tinged moons were spotted for quite a long time after the eruption.
Blue hued moons have likewise been spotted all the more as of late after volcanic emissions — including Mount St. Helens in Washington state in 1980. Woodland flames can cause a similar impact.
The moon rose at 6:35 p.m. CDT Friday in Birmingham and will set at 5:46 a.m. Saturday. It will rise again at 7:40 p.m. Saturday night and set at 6:27 a.m. Sunday. The last moon of the weekend will rise at 8:42 p.m. Sunday. Click here to see the times in your area.
