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| ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::A Tribute to Mr. Moony |
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| [ The Moon ] |
| Phases of the Moon::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The lunar month is the 29.53 days it takes to go from one new moon to the next. During the lunar month, the Moon goes through all its phases. Just like the Earth, half of the Moon is lit by the Sun while the other half is in darkness. The phases we see result from the angle the Moon makes with the Sun as viewed from Earth. At new moon, the Moon is lined up between the Earth and the Sun. We see the side of the Moon that is not being lit by the Sun (in other words, we see no Moon at all, because the brightness of the Sun outshines the dim Moon!) When the Moon is exactly lined up with the Sun (as viewed from Earth), we experience an eclipse. As the Moon moves eastward away from the Sun in the sky, we see a bit more of the sunlit side of the Moon each night. A few days after new moon, we see a thin crescent in the western evening sky. The crescent Moon waxes, or appears to grow fatter, each night. When half of the Moon's disc is illuminated, we call it the first quarter moon. This name comes from the fact that the Moon is now one-quarter of the way through the lunar month. From Earth, we are now looking at the sunlit side of the Moon from off to the side. The Moon continues to wax. Once more than half of the disc is illuminated, it has a shape we call gibbous. The gibbous moon appears to grow fatter each night until we see the full sunlit face of the Moon. We call this phase the full moon. It rises almost exactly as the Sun sets and sets just as the Sun rises the next day. The Moon has now completed one half of the lunar month. During the second half of the lunar month, the Moon grows thinner each night. We call this waning. Its shape is still gibbous at this point, but grows a little thinner each night. As it reaches the three-quarter point in its month, the Moon once again shows us one side of its disc illuminated and the other side in darkness. However, the side that we saw dark at the first quarter phase is now the lit side. As it completes its journey and approaches new moon again, the Moon is a waning crescent. The Blue Moon::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ". . . once in a Blue Moon . . ." This is a fairly common usage of the term Blue Moon. There is no such thing as a Blue Moon - but certain atmospheric conditions can cause the Moon to appear blue. The moon turned blue in 1883, 1927 and 1951. The Indonesian volcano Krakotoa exploded in 1883 throwing up huge clouds of dust and fine debris, which the wind carried to various parts of the world. The dust particles caused scattering of the reflected sunlight causing a bluish glow from the Moon. A similar dusty condition in India in 1927 was caused by the late arrival of the Indian monsoons. The unusually hot and dry weather threw up enough dust to cause a blue moon. The latest blue moon was witnessed in 1951, due to forest fires in western Canada. The smoke particles also caused the occurrence of a blue moon. There have been tow definitions of "The Blue Moon". An older one says that the Blue Moon (What's a Blue Moon?, Sky & Telescope) is a term describing an astronomical event. Due to the Moon's synodic period of 29.53 days, there will be certain months, although rare, in the Gregorian calendar where there are two full moons. The 2nd of such full moon occurring within the same Gregorian month is a Blue Moon. This is the widely understood definition of Blue Moon until the following second definition from an article "Blue Moon" Blooper, March 25, 1999, Sky & Telescope magazine, said that the earlier definition above is incorrect due to an error in interpretation 53 years ago! (Sky & Telescope's March 1946 issue). Recently, it was discovered that the 1937 edition of the Maine Farmers' Almanac, which reportedly mentioned the occurrence of a Blue Moon in August of that year but it was not the 2nd full moon. After much research, Olson Sinnott and Richard Tresch Fienberg concluded that Maine almanac meant the third full Moon in a season with four is the Blue Moon. They also noted that the definition is valid only if you mark the beginnings of the seasons using an outmoded rule based on the dates of Easter and Lent. So whilst we finally put to rest the definition of Blue Moons, the search for such Blue Moons is a little more involved. Quite a number of astronomers prefers to stick with the 2nd full moon definition. Recent Blue Moons The most recent Blue Moons occurred in January and March of 1999. There were two full moons in January - 2nd & 31st and again in March 2nd and 31st. January 31st and March 31st are Blue Moons (2nd full moon definition). The next Blue Moon should occur on July 31st, 2004 UT. |