What is a Blue Moon?
A blue moon can refer to either the third full moon in a season with four full moons, or the second full moon in a month. Most years have twelve full moons that occur approximately monthly.
The last blue moon until 2015 will occur on Friday, August 31, 2012, several science news sites reported on Wednesday, August 29, 2012.
However, people will not see a moon in blue color, since “blue moon” does not refer to color. Blue moon was defined as the fourth full moon in a season, and is recently defined as the second full moon in a month. The blue moon this Friday falls on the second definition, since the first full moon occurred on August 1, 2012.
According to reports, blue moons occur because the calendar months are not exactly in sync with the moon’s orbit. It takes the moon 29.5 days to cycle from full to new to full moon again. Since the calendar months are longer than that except on February, blue moons occur every now and then.
The moon will be at its fullest at 9:58 a.m. EDT (1358 GMT) on Friday. The next blue moon will happen on July 31, 2015, reports said.
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