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Pretty cool. Question though - the definition of a blue moon is for there to be 4 full moons in a season. (Learned on HN): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?i
by mbubb 17y ago
Pretty cool. Question though - the definition of a blue moon is for there to be 4 full moons in a season.
(Learned on HN):
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1008761 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1008761
which cites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon
If that is the case then this is not a blue moon as the first 3 happened in the fall and the 4th is after the solstice. Right?
- btilly 17y agoIf you had read the Wikipedia article for yourself and you'll find multiple definitions of a blue moon. To save you the effort, The Farmer's Almanac used the definition you just cited, but "2 full moons in a month* is the more commonly used definition.
- mbubb 17y agoYeah you are right. Or simply gone to nasa.gov: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29dec_bluemoon.htm http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29dec_bluemoon.htm "The modern definition sprang up in the 1940s. In those days, the Farmer's Almanac of Maine offered a definition of Blue Moon so convoluted that even professional astronomers struggled to understand it. It involved factors such as the ecclesiastical dates of Easter and Lent, and the timing of seasons according to the dynamical mean sun. Aiming to explain blue moons to the layman, Sky & Telescope published an article in 1946 entitled "Once in a Blue Moon." The author James Hugh Pruett cited the 1937 Maine almanac and opined that the "second [full moon] in a month, so I interpret it, is called Blue Moon."
- EricBurnett 17y agoI can't comment on what definition of blue moon they use, but Google calculator says that ~0.37 occur every year: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=1+year+*+once+in+a+blue+moon http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=1+year+*+once+in+a+...