Abstract

• Blue moon is both the second full moon in a calendar month or the third in an astronomical season with 4 full moons.
• The phenomenon of a blue moon, regardless of its title, doesn’t change the moon’s typical coloration to blue.
• The following blue moon will happen in 2026.

Blue moon, as a time period, is fairly deceptive. It is neither significantly uncommon, as instructed by the favored idiom “as soon as in a blue moon,” nor blue in coloration. So, what does a blue moon signify? Here is all the things it is advisable to know.

A Calendar Blue Moon or a Seasonal One?

The time period blue moon has two generally identified definitions. The preferred and extensively identified definition comes from a person named James Hugh Pruett, who, in March 1946, wrote an article referred to as “As soon as in a Blue Moon” within the Sky & Telescope magazine. On this article, Pruett primarily dubbed the second full moon in a calendar month as a blue moon. This blue moon is also referred to as the calendar blue moon. It was popularized within the mid-Eighties and bought worldwide recognition within the late Nineteen Nineties.

Nonetheless, this isn’t the so-called conventional definition of a blue moon. The “conventional” definition has been derived from the 1937 Maine Farmers’ Almanac, a provincial US journal. Nonetheless, as no custom of it existed earlier than 1937, it is extra of an invented custom.

This definition calls the third full moon in an astronomical season, having 4 full moons as a blue moon. It is also referred to as a seasonal blue moon. Extra on the seasonal blue moon later.

The Second Full Moon in a Calendar Month

As talked about, the calendar blue moon is the extensively identified model. It happens as a result of the period between two calendrical full moons is approx. 29.5 days, which is lower than the size of a typical calendar month. In consequence, it is doable for 2 full moons to fall in a single calendar month, one in the beginning of the month and the opposite across the finish. The second full moon is named a blue moon.

As February has 28 days (29 days in a bissextile year), it might by no means have a blue moon, and the months with 31 days have a better likelihood of getting one. On common, a blue moon occurs each 33 full moons or seven occasions each 19 years. Nonetheless, an really uncommon phenomenon is having two blue moons in a calendar yr, which may occur about 4 occasions each hundred years.

A Seasonal Blue Moon

A seasonal blue moon happens when a season, which usually has three full moons in three months, finally ends up with 4 full moons. The third of those 4 is called a seasonal blue moon. A single astronomical season is outlined because the time between a solstice and an equinox, or vice versa. There are two equinoxes and two solstices in a yr, and the 4 seasons, spring, summer season, autumn, and winter, fall between these.

The timing of the solstices and equinoxes, mixed with the size of the lunar cycle, makes it the almost certainly for a seasonal blue moon to sometimes occur round February, Could, August, or November (a few month earlier than the equinox or solstice).

Seasonal blue moons are virtually as frequent as calendar blue moons. Nonetheless, whenever you throw a seasonal blue moon within the combine, it makes it doable to have three blue moons in a calendar yr. That is fairly uncommon, and the final incidence of three blue moons in a yr was in 1934.

When Is the Subsequent Blue Moon?

The following calendar blue moon will happen on Could 31, 2026. The primary full moon of Could 2026 is on the first, permitting the second full moon to sneak into the final day of the month as a blue moon.

Nonetheless, the subsequent seasonal blue moon is about for Could 20, 2027. That is doable as a result of there are 4 full moons in spring 2027: the primary on March 22, the second on April 20, the third on Could 20, and the fourth on June 18. So, the third full moon on Could 20 is a seasonal blue moon.

In case you’re trying ahead to 2 blue moons in a yr, you will have to attend till 2037, when the primary blue moon will occur on January 31 and the second on March 31.

Does the Moon Seem Blue on a Blue Moon?

Sadly, the moon would not sometimes seem blue on a blue moon. It is pale gray, white, or yellowish, the identical because the moon on some other evening.

Nonetheless, underneath very particular atmospheric circumstances, the moon can seem blue on a blue moon or some other evening. This occurs when tiny particles within the air, like smoke and mud, scatter the purple wavelengths of sunshine and make the moon seem blue. It is a uncommon phenomenon and has nothing to do with a calendar blue moon or a seasonal one. It would not even must be a full moon.

How Can I Watch a Blue Moon?

A blue moon is usually the identical as some other full moon, so you do not want something particular to get pleasure from it. Nonetheless, to get one of the best blue moon-watching expertise, it is ultimate to get details about the blue moon date and its climate forecast beforehand. In spite of everything, you do not need to be greeted with cloudy skies.

Full moons are finest considered when they’re at their highest level within the sky. You may verify a moon phase calendar for the exact time in your location. Moreover, the moon appears to be like glorious when the sky is darkish and never crammed with light pollution. Discover a great spot away from city lights, with a transparent view of the sky.

As it is a full moon, it is vivid and arduous to overlook with the bare eye. Nonetheless, you may enhance the expertise with binoculars or a telescope if in case you have entry to them. These will reveal the moon’s options in larger element.

If you cannot discover a great spot or have a cloudy sky, it is simple to seek out stay streams on-line. The Virtual Telescope Project on YouTube is a channel that streams varied blue moon occurrences. You can even search YouTube and social media earlier than the subsequent blue moon to seek out extra sources.