Blue Moon in August

     Dear Diary...

     This month's full moon  occurs on the 1st of August... and again on the 31st of August. The second full moon is referred to as Blue Moon. It's not actually blue, though the moon may appear blue-ish during some rare occasions like huge volcanic eruptions or forest fires, where smoke and dust fill up the atmosphere.

Blue Moon

     The phrase 'once in a blue moon' needs to be revised, simply because a blue moon occurs once every 2 and a half years (2.66 years to be precise). Sometimes, a new moon occurs twice in the same month, and the second one is still called new moon. Here's an other unnecessary fun fact: If two new moons occur within a specific month, then, four years later, two full moons will also occur during that same month. So, there were two new moons in August 2008. (See what I did there?)

      The next time a Blue Moon will take place is in July 2015, so take a moment at the end of this month and look at the full moon, there may be no interesting abnormality in color there, but you can't deny that a bright full moon in a clear dark sky isn't magically mesmerizing. Or is it just me?

Full moon, just a phase

       For more information on the Blue Planet's favorite neighbor, check this article out. 

       If you don't need to read that and you think you know our moon, take this easy quiz for lunatics, from space.com trust me.