Watch Out For A Blue Moon On August 31, 2012 [video]
_Featured_, Space, Videos Thursday, August 30th, 2012
When somebody says “once in a blue moon” you know what they mean: rare, seldom, even absurd. According to modern folklore, whenever there are two full moons in a calendar month, the second one is blue. There was a full moon on August 1, and a second full moon is coming on August 31.
Will the moon actually turn blue on August 31? Probably not. It will likely look just like any other full Moon but, on rare occasions, the Moon really does turn blue. A truly blue moon usually requires a volcanic eruption. Back in 1883, for example, people saw a blue Moon almost every night after the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa exploded with the force of a 100 megaton nuclear bomb.
Kostian Iftica used a blue filter when he photographed this full moon rising over Brighton, Mass on July 2, 2004.
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