Who doesn’t want an astronomical event to watch? Well, no one really. Cosmos are full of wonderful watches. So skywatchers a delicious treat is coming on your way. A rare Blue moon, but not only that it’s coinciding with 31 October; The Halloween. Spooky blue moon it will be. And we can’t miss that for sure as it’s a pretty rare event.
And if missed, you have to wait for 2039 to witness it. So better mark the calendar. We often use this phrase “Once in a blue moon” and it has been a significant part of enticing folklore from time immemorial while being a crucial element in the backdrop of dramatic, mysterious and horror stories. And now we can have it on Halloween.
Blue Moon will be visible in the night sky on October 31 from around 8.19 pm. This sort of second full moon occurs after every 30 months while February cannot have a full moon. The causal reason behind this phenomenon is that the lunar month has a duration of 29 days, 12 hours 44 minutes and 33 seconds and that the first moon should occur on the first and second day of the month. Since February has only 28 days, the month doesn’t witness the sight of a full moon.
It is already rare and now it is coinciding with Halloween. It’s 2020 so one can’t fight. But even though it’s called a Blue Moon, the moon doesn’t really look blue. The moon looks blue very rarely “due to particles thrown into the atmosphere by natural catastrophes”, says NASA.
Yes, 2020 wasn’t the year we all wanted but for skywatcher 2020 did some justice. This year we had 13 full moons including three super moons, four lunar eclipses and even a Blue Moon. The three super moons were seen in March, April and May.
The remaining celestial events of the year will be on November 30 and December 29. In November we will see the Beaver or Frosty Moon and a penumbral lunar eclipse and two days before we hop into 2021 we will watch the Cold Moon. A full moon in December is called the Cold Moon as the temperatures dip sharply and a Beaver Moon is the first full moon of November.
I hope you didn’t miss this event. If you did wait for 2039 now.
Godspeed!
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