Wednesday, March 31, 1999

Second dose of 'blue moons'

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BY JOHN JOHNSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        Today's blue moon won't be blue. Then again, neither was the blue moon on Jan. 31.

        It's strictly a calendar thing. In recent years, the second full moon within a single month has become known as a “blue moon.”

        That definition — which has yet to be included in dictionaries — can be traced to “an editorial goof that was made in 1946,” chuckles Roger W. Sinnott, associate editor of Sky & Telescopemagazine. “We ran an article that said the second full moon of the month is a blue moon. It cited (as the source) the Maine Farmers Almanac of 1937.”

        But the almanac's reference to a blue moon had a different meaning entirely. Over the years, however, people have referred to the mistaken definition in Sky & Telescope.

        This much is clear: Two full moons occasionally occur in one month because the period between full moons (29.5 days on average) is less than an average month (30.4 days).

        The moon was full Jan. 1, and again Jan. 31. February had no full moon. The moon was full March 2, and is again today, giving us our second blue moon of the year.

        Such a three-month sequence won't happen again until 2018, Sky & Telescopereports.

       

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