Submitted by Goldie Krawec
On the night of Oct. 1, we witnessed the first of two full moons for the month of October, 2020. The second will occur on Oct. 31.
What is a “blue moon?” The modern day definition of a blue moon is when there are two full moons in one month.
A full moon occurs roughly every 29.5 days, and on the rare occasions when the full moon falls at the very beginning of a month there is a good chance a blue moon will occur at the end of the month.
We have had several blue moons over the past 10 years.
In August of 2012, full moons occurred on Aug. 2 and Aug. 31. There were two in 2018, the first occurring Jan. 2 and Jan. 31, with the second occurring two months later, March 2 and March 31.
The next blue moons will occur in August, 2023, and in the year 2034 the event happens on July 1 and 31.
This is something to look forward to. Why don’t you mark these important dates on your calendar of things to do and hope that the cloud cover is sparse and you can witness the next time two full moons occur in one month.
As we learned in school, the moon is full when the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. When this occurs the entire surface of the moon looks to be illuminated.
Have you ever tried looking at the moon through binoculars? This will bring out a lot of details we miss with the naked eye.
Whatever power your glasses are means it brings the moon that much closer to the viewer. I tried it with my binoculars that are only 7x power.
In this day and age, people, like hunters, have more opportunities with larger powered glasses to gaze at the moon. Try it. It’s just another thing to do while we are semi-confined.