38 replies to this topic

[BiffSplitkins]

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It doesn’t happen often, but it’s happening next month: August will have a blue moon.
Science enthusiasts know that a blue moon has nothing to do with color. Instead, the term refers to the second full moon in one calendar month.
It’s all a matter of math.
Full moons are about 29.5 days apart. The average month, however, is about 30.5 days. That’s just about the same length as the time between full moons, but not quite. Once in a while — er, once in a blue moon — there is a second full moon within a calendar month. People who’ve done the math


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[Darkwind]

Means it is time for my Blue Moon cookies.  

[Mistydawn]

blue mooooon, you left me standing alooooone....

[Hilander]

Now its time for one of those things that only happens once in a blue moon to happen.

[ealdwita]

(Ealdwita Useless snippet alert)

'Blue Moon' has also been used in the same manner as 'pigs might fly'.....

The 'blue moon' expression with the 'impossibility' meaning is old and dates back to mediaeval England; for example, a work by William Barlow, the Bishop of Chichester, the Treatyse of the Buryall of the Masse, 1528, included a sarcastic reference to a blue moon:

Yf they saye the mone is belewe,
We must beleve that it is true.

In the following year, John Frith's essay A pistle to the christen reader, 1529, included:

"They wold make men beleue... that ye mone is made of grene chese."

It's a poor saying for 'rarity' though, because It's not all that rare an occurrence - two full moons in one month appear once every three years approximately.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

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Science enthusiasts know that a blue moon has nothing to do with color. Instead, the term refers to the second full moon in one calendar month.

Actually astronomy enthusiasts know that this is not true at all.

As Ealdwita has said, the term "once in a blue moon" originally had everything to do with colour.

Here is an interesting article from Sky and Telescope about the origin of this phrase, and how it accidentally got to mean 2 full moons in a month as recently as 1980:Once in a Blue Moon - Fact and fantasy about blue Moons.

From the article:

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"According to old folklore," some people say, the second full Moon in a calendar month is called a "blue Moon." They go on to explain that this is the origin of the expression "once in a blue Moon." But it isn't true! The term "blue Moon" has been around a long time, well over 400 years, but its calendrical meaning has become widespread only in the last 20 years.

Another Sky and Telescope article on the term "blue moon" can be found here: What's a Blue Moon? - The trendy definition of "blue Moon" as the second full Moon in a month is a mistake

[Darkwind]

Blue Moon cookies, buy a tub of sugar cookie dough or make the dough, mix in enough blue berries to make the dough look blue, then mix in a cup of dried blue berries. roll and cut out round cookies. You can use a can for that.  Bake as directed.

[david_36]

Darkwind, on 31 July 2012 - 04:56 PM, said:

Means it is time for my Blue Moon cookies.  

Are they the same Blue Moon cookies that one might find at the Full Moon parties in Thailand

[Englishgent]

I am sure that some years ago I heard that the term ''Once in a blue moon'' came about due to an extremely large forest fire (possibly in Canada if memory serves correctly) around the turn of the last century whereby the smoke from the fire encircled the Earth causing the moon to shine a hazy blue colour.

Edit.......just read the link that Waspie_Dwarf included in his post. Canadian forest fire in 1951.  Oh well, I was close lol.

Edited by Englishgent, 01 August 2012 - 06:22 AM.

[BiffSplitkins]

Waspie_Dwarf, on 31 July 2012 - 07:41 PM, said:

As Ealdwita has said, the term "once in a blue moon" originally had everything to do with colour.
Here is an interesting article from Sky and Telescope about the origin of this phrase, and how it accidentally got to mean 2 full moons in a month as recently as 1980:Once in a Blue Moon - Fact and fantasy about blue Moons.
From the article:
Another Sky and Telescope article on the term "blue moon" can be found here: What's a Blue Moon? - The trendy definition of "blue Moon" as the second full Moon in a month is a mistake

Very interesting. I actually never knew what a real Blue Moon was before anyway. I didn't know there were so many variations on it.

In celebration of the Blue Moon I shall paint my backside blue and 'William Wallace' everyone. I shall sing Mistydawn's song while doing so.

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blue mooooon, you left me standing alooooone....

[Karlis]

Hhmmm ... There's a Full Moon on the 2^nd and 31^st of this month. Going by folklore and tradition, can we expect more than the average number of  weird, unexplained, mysterious posts on UM this August?

[BiffSplitkins]

Karlis, on 01 August 2012 - 12:55 PM, said:

Hhmmm ... There's a Full Moon on the 2^nd and 31^st of this month. Going by folklore and tradition, can we expect more than the average number of  weird, unexplained, mysterious posts on UM this August?

They have already begun... starting with the one above your last post.

[Still Waters]

For the second time this month, the Moon is about to become full.  There was one full Moon on August 1^st/2^nd, and now a second is coming on August 31^st.  According to modern folklore, whenever there are two full Moons in a calendar month, the second one is "blue."

But will the moody Moon of August 31st actually turn blue?  Probably not.

Most Blue Moons look pale gray and white, indistinguishable from any other Moon you've ever seen.  Squeezing a second full Moon into a calendar month doesn't change the physical properties of the Moon itself, so its color remains the same.

With that caveat in mind, however, be aware that on rare occasions it can happen.

http://science.nasa....29aug_bluemoon/

[and then]

When I hear this expression I am reminded of an episode of "Gilligan's Island" where Ginger is acting like a gypsy fortune teller.  She tells them that rescue will come when "the moon is blue" but she has to admit she's a fake.  Later that night - under a full, blue moon, while everyone is asleep, a ship can be seen sailing by on the horizon... the things we remember

[_Only]

Wouldn't miss it for the world. But I'm always seeking the moon out every night. Full moons are special.