Blue moon to greet 2010

By Dale Neal • December 29, 2009

ROSMAN — The glittery ball in New York's Times Square drops every New Year's Eve. But this year it will be joined a second glowing orb in the sky: The last night of 2009 will boast December's second full moon, otherwise known as a blue moon.

A blue moon, according to folklore, is the appearance of a second full moon in a given month, said Bob Hayward, an astronomer and educator at Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, the observatory in Rosman.

It's more a trick of the human calendar than any mischief on the part of the moon, which waxes and wanes on a steady schedule in its 29 1/2-day orbit around the Earth.

Given the months with an uneven number of days in the Gregorian calendar, every couple of years will see an extra full moon in the calendar year, Hayward said. “We can safely say there are about eight blue moons in any 18-year period,” he said.

That extra moon gave rise to the folklore saying “once in a blue moon,” meaning a rare occurrence.

“Visibly, you won't see anything different — or blue — about this moon. It's just a bit of tradition,” Hayward said.

The moon was last full at 2:30 a.m. Dec. 2. On Thursday, the moon will be exactly full at 2:13 p.m.

The last blue moon came on May 31, 2007. The is due in August 2012.

Wiccans will take notice of this month's extra full moon, said Byron Ballard, a local Wiccan leader.

“Modern Pagan people and women honor the full moon as a time of recharging our spiritual batteries, looking at the past month and looking ahead,” she said.

Source: Citizen Times.
Link: http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20091229/NEWS01/312290015/1009/NEWS01.