Halloween Blue Moon 2020
2 min readAll of us know there are 12 Full Moons in a year, i.e. one every month, three every four seasons. However, since each Full Moon is separated by 29.5 days, this means that it takes 354 days for the Moon to complete the 12 full phases. The leftover days of the year keep adding up until once every two -and-a-half years, 13 Full Moons appear in one calendar year. This ‘extra’ Full Moon is a rare event and so it came to be called a Blue Moon.
- A Blue Moon occurs about seven times every 19 years.
- The Blue Moon on Halloween is the second full moon after October 1.
- According to the Nasa, in 1883 an Indonesian volcano named Krakatoa exploded sending plumes of ash clouds into the sky. These clouds contain particles of just the right size to scatter away red light. This caused the Moon to appear blue. A rare event.
- Halloween will coincide with the Blue Moon on the night of October 31.
- According to the NASA, the next Halloween Blue Moon will be in 2039. The last time such a phenomena was seen on Halloween was in 1944
- 2020 has really been a very special year for sky-watchers. This year we had 13 full moons including three super moons, four lunar eclipses and even a Blue Moon. The three super moons were seen in March, April and May.
The remaining celestial events of the year will be on November 30 and December 29. In November we will see the Beaver or Frosty Moon and a penumbral lunar eclipse and two days before we hop into 2021 we will watch the Cold Moon. A full moon in December is called the Cold Moon as the temperatures dip sharply and a Beaver Moon is the first full moon of November.
– Dr. Anand R, Senior Scientific Officer
