Blue Moon? Well, yes and no...

It all started with a simple error. In March of 1946, author James Hugh Pruett wrote an article for ‘Sky and Telescope’ using the Maine Farmer’s Almanac as a reference…trouble is, he misinterpreted the source. The Farmer’s Almanac was widely utilized since the early 19th century for help with gardening via celestial movement and weather predictions. Ordinarily, according to the almanac, there were 3 full moons within each season , or within a quarter of the year. What’s more, each of these full moons had its own special name within each respective season. Rarely, there would be a 4th full moon within a season because of lunation cycles and that was defined as a blue moon.  In his misguided attempt at an interpretation of this, Pruett declared that a ‘Blue Moon’ was the second of 2 full moons occurring within the same month. What? He must have stayed up much too late watching the moon to come to that mathematical conclusion from what the Almanac originally stated…or perhaps he had indulged in too much moonshine the night before?



At any rate, this misinterpretation continued on down through the years and this new ‘Blue Moon’ definition was first popularized by the radio show ‘Star Date’ in 1980. The next year, the makers of the game Trivial Pursuit found Pruett’s article and further propagated the misinformation throughout the entire world. The rest is history. So, going by the ORIGINAL Farmer’s Almanac seasonal definition, the next Blue Moon isn’t scheduled to occur until August 21, 2013. However, even the Farmer’s Almanac has since succumbed to Pruett’s ‘lunatic’ calculations and they show the next Blue Moon as August 31, 2012. So enjoy this rare event, whichever date you should choose, made less rare throughout perpetuity by one teeny, weeny, itsy, bitsy mistake.

You can watch this year’s celestial show at:

http://events.slooh.com/

©2012 Debbie Ballard