{"id":2237,"date":"2009-12-30T07:36:53","date_gmt":"2009-12-30T14:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/?p=2237"},"modified":"2009-12-30T07:36:53","modified_gmt":"2009-12-30T14:36:53","slug":"rare-new-years-eve-blue-moon-to-shine-over-the-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/astronomy\/rare-new-years-eve-blue-moon-to-shine-over-the-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare New Year’s Eve blue moon to shine over the nation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The first New Year's Eve blue moon in 19 years will shine on revelers this year. (NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A relatively rare New Year\u2019s Eve blue moon will be shining down on revelers as they ring in 2010. Blue moons are relatively common but it has been 19 years since one was coupled with December 31st and it will be another 19 years before another occurs.<\/p>\n

Since the 1940s the term \u2018blue moon\u2019 has come to mean the second full moon in any given month. Full moons occur every 29.5 days so most years have 12 full moons. When the calendar aligns just right though, an \u2018extra\u2019 full moon can occur. The blue moon occurs every 2 years, 7 months so given its relatively infrequency, one can understand where the phrase \u2018once in a blue moon\u2019 got its meaning.<\/p>\n

That current definition of \u2018blue moon\u2019 actually came about as a mistake. The phrase itself has been around for at least 400 years. Prior to the 1940s the Maine Farmers’ Almanac tied the event to the seasons saying a blue moon was the fourth full moon in a season rather than the usual three. Its explanation however was entirely convoluted and difficult to understand.<\/p>\n

In 1946 the magazine Sky & Telescope published an article titled “Once in a Blue Moon” and in it the author misinterpreted the almanac saying the “second [full moon] in a month, so I interpret it, is called Blue Moon.” This mistake caught on in modern folklore and continues to this very day.<\/p>\n

\"There's<\/a>Get more details about whether or not a ‘blue moon’ is really blue and other interesting history in the complete article on the Denver Weather Examiner.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A relatively rare New Year\u2019s Eve blue moon will be shining down on revelers as they ring in 2010. Blue moons are relatively common but it has been 19 years since one was coupled with December 31st and it will be another 19 years before another occurs. Since the 1940s the term \u2018blue moon\u2019 has … Continue reading Rare New Year’s Eve blue moon to shine over the nation<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[737,299,224,327],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2238,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237\/revisions\/2238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}