Blue Moon to appear in Nottinghamshire skies this Friday

By the end of this month, prepare to watch a rare event in our sky that appears once in every two and half years. That’s when you not only see the crescent shape of the moon, but you can also see the rest of the moon faintly bathed in second hand sunlight bouncing off our Earth and the lunar surface. A full moon always comes with surprises, according to astronomers who have made a life goal from observing all that is happening over the top of our roofless heads.

While it does not live up to its name, there is the possibility of viewing small blue outline that only appears on the moon’s first day of cycle. Why is it that on some evenings we don’t see the moon at all?

Usually, there is only one full moon every month. First quarter: A week into the phase cycle we have a first quarter moon.

“Blue moon” appears to have been a colloquial expression long before it developed its calendrical term. Our atmosphere is covered by a large variety of compounds which mix and match and can result in fascinating shades covering the surface of the sky or celestial bodies, like the blue moon case. In 1883, the Indonesia’s Krakatoa volcano erupted at a force of a 100 megaton bomb, killing about 36,000 people, making it one of worst volcanic disasters ever.

Depending on the exact time of the Blue Moon it is possible that some places in the world don’t technically have a Blue Moon. People saw blue moons after the 1983 eruption of the El Chichon volcano in Mexico. Forest fires can change the appearance of the sun and moon. The Earth, moon and sun are at a right angle to each other. The origins of the meaning of a blue moon can be traced back to a Sky & Telescope article from the 1940s.

It will be the last time that we see this phenomenon until 2018, when it will occur in January. It’s called that because the moon is a quarter of the way through its cycle of phases. Interestingly, the original definition was different than the periodical’s interpretation.