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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/07/30/the-heavens-unveil-a-full-blue-moon-on-friday-to-say-goodbye-to-july/

By Blaine Friedlander July 30 at 9:45 AM

The heavens unveil a full 'blue moon' on Friday to say goodbye to July
With a nod toward celestial mechanics — and how our calendar is designed — we'll say goodbye to July with a full "blue moon," a modern nickname for the second full moon within a calendar month.

The moon won't actually be blue, it will look like all other full moons. The Washington area's last full moon was July 1 at 10:20 p.m., and the moon officially becomes full again at 6:43 a.m. Friday morning. Our old lunar chum rises in D.C. at 7:37 p.m. tonight, but sets tomorrow morning at 6:21 a.m., just before it becomes completely full. It will appear again in the southwest sky at 8:23 p.m. Friday night – the day of the official full moon.

So why is it called a "blue moon?" The short answer: Don't ask, since it's tortuous, tangled and baffling in a Rube Goldberg kind of way. Based on layers of rules – such as farmer maxims, seasonal interpretations, Ecclesiastical calendar dictates and media misinformation passed down through generations – we are left with a veritable vegetable soup of explanations

In 2006, Donald W. Olson, Richard Fienberg and Roger Sinnott wrote an article for Sky & Telescope magazine called "What Is A Blue Moon?" to explain it. In Sky & Telescope magazine itself, conversant astronomers and editors held a virtual dialogue within its pages for years discussing almanac interpretations. All of that printed chatter morphed into the idea of a second full moon in a calendar month getting the nickname "blue."

"With two decades of popular usage behind it, the second-full-Moon-in-a-month (mis)interpretation is like a genie that can't be forced back into its bottle," conceded Olson, Fienberg and Sinnott.

Actual blue moons

Occasionally, we can spot a real blue moon – or even a blue sun, explain scientists. Our visible blue sky is based on Lord Rayleigh's law of scattering — without our atmosphere full of tiny particles and gases, the sky would be completely black. Instead, light is scattered by these particles to filter out all other colors except blue.

"On rare occasions, atmospheric aerosols can cause the disks of the sun and moon to appear blue," explain scientists from the Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nev. "In 1853, the volcano Krakatoa erupted, spewing dust into the atmosphere. For nearly a month afterward, the moon appeared blue over tropical regions of Earth."

Thanks to the fine dust and light scattering, blue moons and suns also occur in dust-prone areas of Northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, they said.

Mars enjoys this phenomenon, too. NASA's rover Curiosity captured a blue sunset on our neighboring red planet, as the first Martian sunset observed in real color by the rover. The image taken April 15, 2015 comes from the so-called left-eye camera of the rover's Mast Camera, which sees color like humans. Thanks to the Mars' atmospheric dust, the blue light penetrates the dust quite well – presenting a blue-effect that is pronounced at sunset.

In 2018 we'll get special lunar circumstances — a blue moon in both January 2018 and March 2018, and no full moon at all in February that year. Sorry, February. And for giggles, nature throws us a colorful curve, since the January 2018 blue moon may be an orange-red due to the total lunar eclipse that evening. (For Washington, that eclipse occurs at moonset.)

nasa vid at link









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http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/trending/tt-AAdFJWK?q=Blue%20Moon%20July%2031&form=PTTWSP

If conditions are right, Friday's moon will appear blue in spots


The term "blue moon" usually describes a long span of time, but it also describes a second full moon occurring in one month. And if conditions are right, Friday's "blue moon" could actually appear to be subtly blue in parts of the world. CityLab reports that's because tiny particles from an unusually active fire season are flooding the atmosphere, and potentially scattering red light to give the moon the appearance of a floating blueberry.



A composite, digitally edited photo of a full moon in 2007. (Dino Abatzidis/Flickr)
Friday's 'Blue Moon' Could Actually Look Blue
CityLab 

There's a Blue Moon Coming This Friday, July 31
Wochit Entertainment  ?

Blue Moon: Thrill This Week for Skywatchers Who Love The Moon
Warp  ?


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http://www.inquisitr.com/2292855/a-blue-moon-is-coming-july-31-and-it-wont-be-back-again-for-another-three-years/

A Blue Moon Is Coming July 31, And It Won't Be Back Again For Another Three Years

The inspiration for a clichéd saying, the famous "Blue Moon," will rise over much of the world on July 31, and we won't see another one until 2018.


The cliché has lived up to its name.

To be technically accurate, though, the Blue Moon as we understand it is kind of a misunderstanding, Space.com reported.

Earth gets its extra full moon because the lunar and calendar months aren't quite the same length. At 29-and-a-half days, the lunar month is shorter than every one except February. These extra days add up until, eventually, we get a 13th in that special year.

A bit of confusion with the definition of the lunar event, which falls on July 31 and offers the month its second full moon, led to our current belief about what it is exactly. A season lasts generally three months, and each three months should have only three — when it has four instead, the third (and not the fourth, for some reason) is dubbed the extra.

Back in 1946, a magazine article in Sky & Telescope tweaked this definition a bit — the writer described it as the second full rising in one month. And this July, we'll be treated to another on the 31; the last one was on the 2.


This event is actually pretty rare, occurring once every 2.7 years, and we won't catch another until 2018. The last time we were treated to the sight was August, 2012. Luckily, it doesn't matter where you live — everyone will be able to see it come Friday. It will occur when the sun, Earth, and moon fall into a single file, and that happens at the same time everywhere, no matter where the satellite is in the sky.

The so-called Blue Moon isn't blue at all, either. Actually, it has many other names (Sturgeon, Green Corn, Grain, and Red) that coordinate with natural events on Earth, according traditions both from Native American cultures and Europe.

The planetoid is sometimes blue, of course, though whether it'll take on the hue on July 31 remains to be seen. Smoke or dust particles floating around the atmosphere are usually to blame for that, CNN added. The cause is usually a volcanic eruption.

That's what happened in 1883. Krakatoa erupted and for years afterward, it took on a bluish hue. The sunsets were also vividly red. In 1950, it took on the pretty color in Scotland — the smoke from forest fires in Canada caught in the clouds and the light from the Royal Observatory's satellite traveled through it at just the right time.

Given that this event only occurs every now and then (hence the cliché), when July 31 rolls around, make sure to step outside for a bit to see it. Maybe something unusual will happen while you're out enjoying the sight.