What is known as blue moon It is a phenomenon that happens every two or three years, when two full moons occur in the same month. According to the lunar calendar, the last full blue moon of this type occurred on August 30, 2023 and the next one will not occur again until May 2026. However, there is another type of blue moon called a seasonal blue moon that occurs when, in the same season of the year, three months, up to four full moons occur.
This is what will happen this year 2024, and the one that occurs this month of August, on the full moon of August 19, is precisely considered a blue moon. This full moon will also be supermoona full Moon that looks bigger and brighter than usual.
What will not be seen this Moon is bluealthough we call it Blue Moon. We will talk to you about why it is called a blue moon, monthly or seasonal, right away.
You should also know that «supermoon» is not a technical astronomical term.but the popular term that is used to refer to a full Moon that appears larger because it occurs near the lunar perigee.
The term was coined by an astrologer named Richard Nolle in the 1970s, although today reference media use different criteria to establish whether a full Moon is a supermoon or not, depending on its proximity to perigee and the proportion in which the size with which it is seen from Earth increases. According to NASA, this August full moon can be considered a supermoon.
What is the blue moon?
You probably remember that singers like Billie Holiday or Frank Sinatra, among many others, entrusted their longings for love to a blue moon in a famous song. Blue moon you saw me standing alone, without a dream in my heart…
Now, that melancholy-inspiring blue moon has nothing to do with the lunar phenomenon that occurs this August 2024. In fact, the blue moon, or blue moon in English, it is neither sad nor truly blue.
blue moon It is nothing more than the name given to the second full moon of the two that occur in the same monthsomething that occurs from time to time, or in the case of the seasonal variant, to the third full Moon that occurs within the same station.
Since this year’s first full moon of summer arrived just after the June solstice, there will be time for four full moons to occur before fall arrives. This one on August 19, 2024 will be the third; the fourth will arrive on September 18.
Why is it called a blue moon if it is not blue?
The name misleads and there has been much speculation about why it is called that, without there being a clear answer.
The most widespread theory is that it comes from medieval English belewewhich means «to betray», and which later led to blue«blue». Originally, it would have referred, therefore, to a treacherous moon.
However, other theories point to possible origins very diverse, such as in the past it was believed that this Moon gave bad luck (the color blue is associated with sadness) or that the name comes from the English expression once every blue moonused to refer to something that goes from grapes to pears.
Be that as it may, the second full moon of a month, or in its case of a season, it’s not really blue.
Sometimes the Moon looks blue, but it is not the same
Indeed, the Moon can be seen blue in other circumstances. And, in this case, we could say that the phenomenon is rare and infrequent.
What makes it dyed in color is the presence of dust or ash smoke in the atmosphere, when it comes to moderately large particles. The particles scatter red light and make the Moon appear blue. Logically, the Moon does not have to be full to look this color.
Some volcanic eruptions have caused this phenomenon throughout history, such as the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia, in 1883, that of El Chichón in Mexico, in 1983, that of Saint Helena in the United States, in 1980, or that of Pinatubo in the Philippines, in 1991.
But, unless the volcanoes surprise us, we will not see the Moon blue this year. A forest fire Yes, it could make the Moon look bluish in some cases.
How the blue Moon influences us
We have already seen that the blue Moon is not blue and that it does not have to make us feel sad. Or no more than what any full Moon can make us feel, if that is the case. However, farmers and anyone looking at the Moon’s influences on Earth may want to take it into account.
The blue moon It’s just another full moon and this is how its influence must be understood, without it having anything special because it is called blue or because it coincides on the calendar with another in the same month: the coincidence is not magical, but a result of the way in which we have structured the calendars, as we will see later.
Even so, some people celebrate their rituals to honor their influence. The full moon It is related to the culmination and consummationis considered a good influence to complete projects.
At the time of the full moon physical energy is renewed quickly, although the moment can also be accompanied by greater agitation and, sometimes, insomnia. The full Moon is also considered favorable for meditation.
In August 2024, this summer’s extra full moon considered a blue moon occurs during its upward curve in the northern hemisphere (and downward in the southern hemisphere),
According to biodynamic agriculture, which includes its criteria in the Biodynamic farming calendar of Maria Thun, it is generally considered that in rising moon The sap of the plant is directed more strongly upward. This makes the periods of the ascending moon good for grafting and harvesting juicier fruits.
Instead, the descending moon It carries plant liquids downward, towards the roots. That is why during the periods of the descending moon it is recommended to harvest tubers, prune, replant or cut down.
How often does a blue moon occur?
The answer is simple when we refer to the classic blue moon, which occurs when two full moons occur in the same month: approximately every two and a half or every three years we can have a blue moon. Most years with a blue moon there will be only one, that is, only one month with a double full moon, but sometimes the unusual phenomenon of there being two blue moons in the same year occurs, as happened in 2018 and as will happen again in 2037.
To know why this phenomenon of a double full moon in a month or Blue Moon occurs, it is important to understand how the lunar calendar works with respect to the solar calendar and, above all, what a metonic cycle is.
He solar calendar It is based on the time it takes the Earth to revolve around the Sun. Its division by months does not correspond to the lunar cycleswhich last 29.5 days, although calendars usually include both aspects, the division by months and, within these, the corresponding part of each lunar cycle.
He metonic cycle corresponds to the time it takes for the lunar calendar to synchronize or realign with the solar calendar, that is, for the behavior of the moon and the days of each month to repeat and coincide.
And how long does that metonic cycle last? Well, nothing less than 235 lunar monthswhich is equivalent to 19 calendar years per month.
And therein lies the secret: in 235 lunar months we see 235 full moons, but only 228 solar months pass. We have, therefore, 7 more moons than months over 19 years, which are what make some years have 13 moons instead of 12 and, therefore, blue moon.
Those 7 extra moons spread over 19 years give us the frequency with which the blue moon appears: exactly every 2.7 years.
That’s why we can anticipate that we will have a blue moon in August 2023, in May 2026, again twice in January and March 2029… and we’ll keep counting.
August 2023 Blue Full Moon: What was it like?
This Super Blue Moon was the most prominent supermoon of the year. Of the four supermoons that 2023 had (one in July, two in August and one in September), this second full Moon in August was the one that occurred closest to the lunar perigee, the moment when our satellite closest in its orbit to the Earth, so it was visually the one that grew the most when it appeared over the horizon at night.
If you recover a lunar calendar for 2020 you will see that in October there were two full moons, one at the beginning of the month and one at the endspecifically on the 1st and 31st. The one on the 31st, Halloween night, was a famous blue moon.
Blue moons are possible because Full moon occurs every 29.5 dayswhich would be the length of a lunar month. Therefore, if the full Moon falls at the beginning of the month there may be time for the Moon to look full again at the end of that same month. In 2018 we even had two blue Moons in the same year, in January and March, a very unusual phenomenon that also left February without a full Moon, what is popularly known as a «Black Moon».
In the years when a blue moon occurs we have 13 full moons instead of 12. At the same time, it may be the case, like this year, that some season has that year or a different one, depending on how it falls, with 4 full moons, instead of 3, which is usual.
The third full Moon in a season with four full Moons is known as seasonal blue moon and it is usually reflected in farmers’ almanacs. That’s the blue moon we’ll have August 19, 2024. We can’t complain: four summer nights with a full moon!
How is it possible that there is a seasonal blue moon?
The seasons always occur between a solstice and an equinox, or vice versa, and last three months. Normally they have three full Moons, but when the first full moon falls very close to the solstice or equinox that opens the season, there may be room for a fourth full moon before the equinox or closing solstice, respectively.
This phenomenon, like the monthly blue moon, occurs with some frequency, also every 3-4 years. For the next seasonal blue light, after this one in August 2024, we will have to wait until May 20, 2027.
What does not happen so often is that a monthly blue moon and a seasonal blue moon coincide in the same year. This phenomenon will not occur until the year 2048, when we will have a monthly Blue Moon on January 31 and a seasonal Blue Moon on August 23.