False Blue Moon 2010 Peaks at Midnight on New Year's Eve; Lunar Eclipse Invisible to USA

On New Year's Eve, December 31, 2009, the Full Moon will also be a "Blue Moon", although not literally blue in hue. A blue moon according to modern-day belief is the second full moon occurring within a month. This event happens every two or three years per our conventional calendar, which has about eleven days more than a lunar year has. The next time a Blue Moon will shine on New Year's Eve is 2028. However, neither is a true Blue Moon.

Blue Moon Bungle. Per the Maine Farmers' Almanac, there is no Blue Moon in December 2009. In the Almanac's traditional terms, one season typically has three full moons. When four full moons occur within a season, the third one is called the blue moon. Thus, in this context, the previous true blue moon occurred in December 2008. The very next trues ones will occur in November 2010 and August 2013.

Our modern-day belief of what constitutes a blue moon was perpetrated by astronomer James Hugh Pruett when he misunderstood the 1937 Maine Farmers' Almanac and published his bungle in a 1946 issue of Sky & Telescope. He wrote, "Seven times in 19 years there were- and still are- 13 full moons in a year. This gives 11 months with one full moon each and one with two. This second in a month, so I interpret it, was called Blue Moon." Our society unwittingly embraced the beatific but big error- further propagated in 1980 by the radio program StarDate. The article 'What Is a Blue Moon?' in a 1999 issue of Sky & Telescope by three writers who had studied over forty issues of Maine Farmers' Almanac (1819-1962) exposed the bungle but did not vanquish it.

The Rare Blue Moon That Truly Is Blue. A blue moon that literally appears to be of blue hue is rare and is not necessarily a full moon. This blue celestial phenomenon notably occurred in 1980, 1950, and 1883. The 1980 major eruption of Mount St. Helen's hurled tons of ash into the upper atmosphere, causing a blue moon. After the forest fires of 1950 in Sweden and Canada and after the 1983 eruption of Krakatoa (a volcano island of lava located in the Sunda Strait, which conjoins the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean), the moon looked blue to Earthlings for two years.

The geographical disasters induced an influx of atmosphere particles that had a diameter of about one micrometer (about .00004 inch). The particles caused the long-wavelength light, which looks red, to disappear, and caused the short-wavelength light, which looks blue, to remain in sight. Thus, a blue hue appeared to emanate from the moon- a true once-in-a-blue moon occurrence.

Partial Eclipse of the Faux Blue Moon. The partial eclipse of the unscientific Blue Moon occurring on New Year's Eve December 31, 2009 extends into New Year's Day, January 1, 2010.

A lunar eclipse transpires only when the moon is full. As Earth passes between the Moon and Sun, Earth's shadow eclipses the moon's surface. Earthshine- Earth's light- reflects on other areas of the moon causing the moon's color to appear goldenrod-orange rather than its typical platinum. "And when I looked, the Moon had turned to gold." ^{A lyric from the song 'Blue Moon'.}

Partial Lunar Eclipse Visibility. The four-hour-long partial lunar eclipse of the mis-named Blue Moon- whose greatest eclipse takes place at 19:23 Universal Time- will be visible neither in the USA nor in nearly all of South America (only a southeast portion of Brazil will have a view). Central Canada and all of her south and north will not see the eclipse. Nor will Antarctica see it. Yet, the news is good for the populations of Africa, Asia, and Europe... as well as for the wildlife in the Arctic- the entire eclipse will be visible. In some marginal areas between the land masses over which the eclipse will be visible and the land masses over which it will be invisible, the eclipse will show either at moonrise or at moonset.

Although the eclipse won't be visible in the USA, the Blue Moon will still shine its fullness on New Year's Eve in full view of skywatchers if skies are cloud-free. Those partygoers ringing in the New Year can imagine a blue glowing tinge to the gleaming beaming celestial sphere as it reaches its zenith height precisely at midnight.

_{Sources: twocircles.net; sify.com; skyandtelescope.com; new-age.co.uk; eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov}