BLUE MOON ON NEW YEAR'S EVE: Believe it or not, tonight's full Moon is a "Blue Moon." It's the second full Moon this month and the first Blue Moon to fall on New Year's Eve in nearly 20 years. Sounds like a rare excuse for a party...There's more. In Europe, Africa and Asia, the Blue Moon will dip into Earth's shadow for a partial lunar eclipse. At maximum eclipse, around 19:24 Universal Time, approximately 8% of the Moon will be darkly shadowed:
Blue Moons are rare (once every 2.5 years). Blue Moons on New Year's Eve are rarer still (once every 19 years). How rare is a lunar eclipse of a Blue Moon on New Year's Eve?
A search of NASA's Five Millennium Catalogue of Lunar Eclipses provides an approximate answer. In the next 1000 years, Blue Moons on New Year's Eve will be eclipsed only 11 times (once every 91 years). A year of special note is 2848 when there will be two lunar eclipses in December--on Dec. 1st and Dec. 31st. Such a double-Blue Moon-lunar eclipse ending on New Year's Eve appears to be a millennium-level event. That's rare.
A search of NASA's Five Millennium Catalogue of Lunar Eclipses provides an approximate answer. In the next 1000 years, Blue Moons on New Year's Eve will be eclipsed only 11 times (once every 91 years). A year of special note is 2848 when there will be two lunar eclipses in December--on Dec. 1st and Dec. 31st. Such a double-Blue Moon-lunar eclipse ending on New Year's Eve appears to be a millennium-level event. That's rare.
I love "Spaceweather.com", it has tons of information and pictures too.
5 comments:
I had no idea about the origin of this phrase. Too bad I didn't read this post earlier so I could call my Dad and tell him to watch with his telescope. Very cool!
loved reading and learning...thanks for sharing...
can't believe the missionary is at 125 days...does he have his release date yet?
Happy New Years...love you tons...
I love that I feel smarter after I leave your blog! If only the blasted snow had gone away so we could have seen the moon last night. Oh well. Happy snowy new year!
Happy New Year!!
The moon was so pretty last night and it's light shown across the snow was awesome.
Many the new year bring many blessings.
Warmly,
Deb :)
very cool, i missed the blue moon..
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