Off-Beat-News
It's (once in) a blue moon tonight─── MJ LOURENS 11:28 Fri, 31 Jul 2015
Bloemfontein - If anything weird happens today, you have the right to say "once in a blue moon".
The July 31 appearance of the month's second full moon will be the first such occurrence since August 2012.
However, the moon won't really be blue. Sometimes though, according to CNN, when a moon does take on a bluish hue, it is because of smoke or dust particles in the atmosphere, such as during a cataclysmic volcanic eruption.
According to CNN this happened in 1883, when the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa erupted, spewing so much ash into the atmosphere that the moon took on a cerulean tinge for years, night after night.
After the massive explosion, which scientists believe rivaled a 100-megaton nuclear bomb, the volcanic debris caused vibrant red sunsets and the moon to have a bluish tint.
The dark blue tone of an evening sky can affect the coloring we perceive, as well.
The dark blue tone of an evening sky can affect the coloring we perceive, as well.
Source: CNN
"Blue Moon of November 21 2010 viewed from Brooklyn NY USA Canon 40D Celestron 4SE" by Astroval1 - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
"The Blue Moon" by Josué Cedeño - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
