# Blue moon tonight **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 31, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285 "2012-08-31T17:56:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/1 "2012-08-31T17:56:44Z")
[Blue Moon,](http://www.zdnet.com/once-in-a-7000003574/) You saw me standing alone, Without a dream in my heart, Without a love of my own… It’s a blue, blue world Without you… Well, I never felt more like singin’ the blues… She wore blue velvet… Night and you, and blue Hawaii… ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/2 "2012-08-31T18:04:06Z")
So I’ll probably be disappointed. Is that the end of the article? Wow, what horrid writing. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/3 "2012-08-31T18:07:17Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > So I’ll probably be disappointed. > > Is that the end of the article? Wow, what horrid writing. Blue writing. Watch the moon instead, and remember…we once walked on it. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/4 "2012-08-31T18:08:40Z")
Who writes these things, anyway? Almost EVERYONE here at SDMB writes better consistently and without an editor. \ ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/5 "2012-08-31T18:17:22Z")
Here’s a much better article, by Neil Degrasse Tyson: > **[Q&A: A Once in a Blue Moon Chat with Neil DeGrasse Tyson](https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-METROB-15790)** > > If you get caught between the moon and New York City, the best that you can do is call Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the director of the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium. Here's his take on Friday night's rare blue moon. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/6 "2012-08-31T18:43:25Z")
Actually, Tyson bypassed the more interesting question about where the phrase comes from. Here’s the definitive article, from Sky and Telescope: [http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/3305141.html](http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/3305141.html) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/7 "2012-08-31T21:47:27Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Actually, Tyson bypassed the more interesting question about where the phrase comes from. Here’s the definitive article, from Sky and Telescope: > > [http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/3305141.html](http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/3305141.html) Not as definitive as [Cecil.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/162/is-there-ever-really-a-blue-moon) And Cecil’s column is dated 1977, prior to the earliest example the S&T author could find. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/8 "2012-08-31T21:52:33Z")
It’s an anniversary of sorts for \*\*Rhiannon8404 \*\*and I…our first date happened under a [Blue Moon](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7giOrKYIwpQ), December 31, 1990. Happy Anniversary girl! ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/9 "2012-08-31T21:59:00Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > Who writes these things, anyway? > > Almost EVERYONE here at SDMB writes better consistently and without an editor. > > \ Who doth with the what sometimes pancakes? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/10 "2012-08-31T22:00:59Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Not as definitive as [Cecil.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/162/is-there-ever-really-a-blue-moon) And Cecil’s column is dated 1977, prior to the earliest example the S&T author could find. Not true, I’m afraid. Cecil doesn’t make the same observation about the use of “blue moon” that the S&T article does. Go re-read it. As used by the Farmer’s Almanac, “blue moon” occurred when you had _four_ full moons in a three-month season. The person who thought that “a blue moon” came when there were two full moons in a single month was mistaken about the significance and mean, which even the S&T article doesn’t make fully clear. The Farmer’s almanac gave each month a particular name. This may look like some ancient practice, but it isn’t, really. the month names the Farmer’s Almanac gives mostly first appeared in their pages (they didn’t invent “Harvest Moon”, and siome of the others). What happens is that occasionally an extra full mon will creep into a three-month season. If you gave it the same name it normally has, then your months will creep through the year, just as they do with the islamic lunar calendar (which is why amadan is sometimes in the summer, sometimes in the winter). If you don’t want this to happen, you introduce an extra month, as in the Jewish solar-lunar calendar. The give the extra month the same name as the preceeding month. The Farmer’s Almanac didn’t do this – they called the extra month Blue Moon, instead. Note that – it’s not A blue moon, it’s THE Blue Moon, just as you have Harvest Moon and Hunter’s Moon and all the others. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/11 "2012-08-31T22:10:29Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Not as definitive as [Cecil.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/162/is-there-ever-really-a-blue-moon) And Cecil’s column is dated 1977, prior to the earliest example the S&T author could find. There’s got to be some date-fuzzing there, becausethis passage: > [@](#): > > …The most recent blue moons occurred in January 1999 and again just two months later in March–a highly unusual circumstance that garnered a lot of attention from the press. would indicate a much more recent writing. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/12 "2012-08-31T22:32:37Z")
Bluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuueueueueuuuu Oh so lonesome for you. Why can’t you be blueeeeeee over meeeeee… ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/13 "2012-09-01T00:21:57Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Who doth with the what sometimes pancakes? Shouldn’t you be out [celebrating](http://smurfs.wikia.com/wiki/Blue_moon)? -D/a ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/14 "2012-09-01T20:34:08Z")
All these years and I never knew a blue moon was anything but an expression. Or a bluegrass song, _Blue Moon of Kentucky_. Tropical Storm Issac kept me from seeing it last night. Raining pretty hard. I want to see one now that I know it’s real. When is the next one coming? I know the article says once every 2 1/2 years. So, maybe early 2015? > **[Well, it does only happen once in a blue moon: Stunning pictures of rare...](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2196661/Blue-Moon-August-2012-Rare-calendar-phenomenon-occurs.html)** > > Last night was the night when for the first time in two years we were treated to our second full moon in August, thanks to the moon last reaching its peak on August 2. > [@](#): > > It is also a rare statistical quirk which occurs when a full moon occurs twice in a calendar month. > > And last night was the night when for the first time in two years we were treated to our second full moon in August, thanks to the moon last reaching its peak on August 2. > [@](#): > > With a full moon occurring once every 29 days, and a month topping out with a maximum of 31 days, the combination is a rare one - occurring around once every two-and-a-half years. > > Sadly, we cannot expect the moon to take on a different hue. Barring volcanic eruption, it will remain as white as ever, unless clouds obscure the view. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/15 "2012-09-01T20:45:09Z")
You might want to see [this thread,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=663975) only a day past its prime. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/16 "2012-09-01T22:09:27Z")
Other than the actual blue moon occurrences, “blue moon” makes me think of [Billie Holiday](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7rvZTcWRMc&feature=youtube_gdata_player) Or [blue moon ice cream! Nomnomnom.](http://edgecdn.relish.com/44609-blue-moon-ice-cream__crop-landscape-534x0.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/17 "2012-09-01T22:17:59Z")
Next blue moon is [2015,](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/blue-moon-had-many-looking-to-the-skies-taking-photos.html) assuming you use the currently popular definition. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/18 "2012-09-01T22:43:01Z")
Ahem. [Is there ever really a blue moon? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/162/is-there-ever-really-a-blue-moon) And you call yourselves Dopers… ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/19 "2012-09-01T23:40:06Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > Ahem. > > [Is there ever really a blue moon? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/162/is-there-ever-really-a-blue-moon) > > And you call yourselves Dopers… Already incorporated. A link within a link within a thread within a link. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285/20 "2012-09-02T04:40:21Z")
Well, shit. If I had any dignity I would… I dunno. Be embarassed or something. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blue-moon-tonight/633285.md?page=2)