Once in a Blue Moon

Keeping my theme going from my other blog – another one about space! This time it’s about the moon. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘Once in a Blue Moon.’ If you’re like me, you thought it was about something that has a pretty low chance of happening. Blue Moons don’t exist! Well, I was wrong. Blue Moons do exist, and they happen pretty frequently – every few years or so. A blue moon simply means that it’s the second full moon in a calendar month. (There are some other ways of defining a Blue Moon; this is the most agreed upon.)

October 2020 was kind of a special month. We had a harvest moon on October 1, 2020 (full moon closest to the autumn equinox, last one in October until 2028!) and we’re going to have a Blue Moon on October 31, 2020. Spooky! Normally, this would probably cause some fun Halloween shenanigans (or at least some puns) but not this year...that’s a whole other topic!

So when you look up into the sky this Halloween, the moon isn’t going to look any different but you’ll know that there’s something a little special about it.

And be careful about what you’ll say will happen ‘once in a Blue Moon’ – the next one is August 31, 2023!

-Jess

Click here for more info about the blue moon, including some cool lore!