Blue moon last night!

[Sharkman Briton]

I saw the Blue Moon through my binoculars and saw all the seas and the crater tycho!

[Thomassino]

Great! But it's better to observe craters during quarters or crescent. You'll see them much better because they cast shadows.

BTW, I noticed some people on the internet really thought it would be blue *facepalm*

[Scotius]

Oh man. Air pollution must be terrible at your place. I hope your lungs didn't turn blue too

[Godot]

Great! But it's better to observe craters during quarters or crescent. You'll see them much better because they cast shadows.

BTW, I noticed some people on the internet really thought it would be blue *facepalm*

I have to agree ...

you never get a better, more 3 dimensional view of the craters than when looking at the Terminator (i.e. the border between light and dark)

[Sharkman Briton]

Oh man. Air pollution must be terrible at your place. I hope your lungs didn't turn blue too

No mate, it's england, cloudy ALL night EVERY night.

- - - Updated - - -

Great! But it's better to observe craters during quarters or crescent. You'll see them much better because they cast shadows.

BTW, I noticed some people on the internet really thought it would be blue *facepalm*

It IS kinda blue, when I looked at it there was a thick blue "Corona" around it, and viewing it with my binoculars I could see a thin blue line around it, looked like a kind of sunrise/sunset there, and strangely like an atmosphere. I'll have to look out for crescent moons!

[Thomassino]

It IS kinda blue, when I looked at it there was a thick blue "Corona" around it, and viewing it with my binoculars I could see a thin blue line around it, looked like a kind of sunrise/sunset there, and strangely like an atmosphere. I'll have to look out for crescent moons!

What you saw was atmospheric scattering of Moon's light. There's no way the Moon could get blue aside from sudden and rapid Sun's transformation into type O blue star (which we would already noticed)

[Superfluous J]

What you saw was atmospheric scattering of Moon's light. There's no way the Moon could get blue aside from sudden and rapid Sun's transformation into type O blue star (which we would already noticed)

Not if it happened after local sunset...

[Hcube]

Hey yeah i watched it too ! i wanted to look for shooting stars at first but obviously it's very hard to see any during a blue moon so i observed some lunar craters with 8x binoculars and i could see everything... it was very nice this night ! By the way, does anyone have a map of the visible side of the Moon with the locations of diverse probe and apollo landings ? i couldn't find any after an extensive 5minute-search and i'll rep anyone that can provide a link ! thanks

[Tex_NL]

...

i couldn't find any after an extensive 5minute-search and i'll rep anyone that can provide a link ! thanks

Seriously? You didn't find ANYTHING in 5 minutes? This took me roughly 5 SECONDS!

[Columbia]

..Damnit. I thought it was today.

I saw the particularly bright moon, though. Seemed like dusk. I dismissed it as a bright full moon..

[Tex_NL]

There is absolutely nothing special about a blue moon. It isn't something magical, it doesn't have a different color. It isn't brighter or dimmer than normal nor is it bigger or smaller. The ONLY thing that makes a blue moon stand out from all other regular full moons is that it's the second full moon in a month. A year counts 12 months and on average 13 full moons. So every 'once in a blue moon' you'll have two full moons in a single month. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Hcube]

Seriously? You didn't find ANYTHING in 5 minutes? This took me roughly 5 SECONDS!

well, with the internet connection i have right there (vacation!), loading the main google search page takes about 3 to 4 minutes, that's pretty much why i asked here ! thank you !

[ZetaX]

A year counts 12 months and on average 13 full moons.

No, there are only about 12.37 full moons per year, that's why blue moons only happen every ~2.7 years.

[Tex_NL]

No, there are only about 12.37 full moons per year, that's why blue moons only happen every ~2.7 years.

If you say it's 12.37 I trust you. I didn't bother to get into the exact details that close.

But 12.37 instead of 13 only strengthens my point. It makes the occurrence that much rarer but changes nothing to the fact it's actually nothing special.

[Superfluous J]

..Damnit. I thought it was today.

I saw the particularly bright moon, though. Seemed like dusk. I dismissed it as a bright full moon..

Can't have a blue moon on the first day of the month. Or any of the first 28 days of the month.

[YNM]

Blue moon is a plain one to see, unless there's a recent very major volcano eruption to the scale of krakatau's 1883 eruption...

Better to look for things at quarters, or even crescent.

[vger]

There is absolutely nothing special about a blue moon. It isn't something magical, it doesn't have a different color. It isn't brighter or dimmer than normal nor is it bigger or smaller. The ONLY thing that makes a blue moon stand out from all other regular full moons is that it's the second full moon in a month. A year counts 12 months and on average 13 full moons. So every 'once in a blue moon' you'll have two full moons in a single month. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.

It certainly hasn't dampened the popularity any. I don't remember blue moons getting ANY such buzz until just a few years ago. And then there's the "supermoon" thing.

[Tex_NL]

A 'supermoon' is only slightly more special than a 'blue moon'. A 'supermoon' happens when the full moon coincides with the moons perigee making it visually a few percent bigger and tides a bit higher.

The supermoon of March 19, 2011 (right), compared to an average moon of December 20, 2010 (left).

But a 'supermoon' isn't actually that rare. We'll have a total three to go this year alone: August 29, September 28 and October 27.

[ZetaX]

A 'supermoon' happens when the full moon coincides with the moons perigee...

But a 'supermoon' isn't actually that rare. We'll have a total three to go this year alone: August 29, September 28 and October 27.

I am doubtful that there can be more than one full moon where it is actually close to the perigee. It probably is in September, and those other two are 30° or so off.

[Tex_NL]

Wikipedia isn't always the most reliable source but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermoon says the following:

The name SuperMoon was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, arbitrarily defined as:

...a new or full moon which occurs with the Moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee). In short, Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth.

According to that rule there are on average 4 to 6 supermoons per year.

[ZetaX]

I cannot find any reasonable meaning for "within 90% of its closest approach". They surely don't want "up to it being at least 1.9 times that far away".

Maybe that should catually be a 10%, but even that is very random and broad.

What's so wrong about "the perigee falls within 24h of a full moon" or something similiar¿

[vger]

I cannot find any reasonable meaning for "within 90% of its closest approach". They surely don't want "up to it being at least 1.9 times that far away".

Maybe that should catually be a 10%, but even that is very random and broad.

No more random than dictating what is or isn't a planet. This kind of thing is ALWAYS subjective.

It's probably best to keep it relative to the moon instead of our own timeframe. How would we apply it to alien moons? Some planet with an insanely slow rotation could have 100 supermoons per "day."

Edited August 2, 2015 by vger

[Tex_NL]

Same wikipage directly below my previous quote:

Nolle also claimed that the moon causes "geophysical stress" during the time of a supermoon. Nolle never outlined why the 90% was chosen.

And yes, I do know he's an astrologer, as in astrology (i.e. horoscopes and other pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo), not an astronomer.

But one can not deny the simple fact celestial objects do influence life on earth. Day & night, the seasons, ocean tides, weather in general, breeding and migratory patterns of various lifeforms. Even our calender and most of our holidays are (in)directly based on celestial events.

[vger]

Day & night, the seasons, ocean tides, weather in general, breeding and migratory patterns of various lifeforms. Even our calender and most of our holidays are (in)directly based on celestial events.

Just recently there's been talk about some illnesses peaking around full moon, and I'm not even talking about mental illnesses. More research certainly needs to be done. Full moons are just plain weird, even when you take away the supernatural myths.

[ZetaX]

@Both of the above:

There simply is no point in time when the moon is 90% further away than at perigee. I was not asking why exactly that number, but why that number is supposed to make any sense.

No more random than dictating what is or isn't a planet. This kind of thing is ALWAYS subjective.

Just because both are subjective does not mean they are equally subjective. That 90% is nonsensical and pulled out of nowhere; the definition of planet was found after a long discussion and scientific endevour what might contribute to being a planet and not just a huge rock.