Once in a Blue Moon
Skywatchers, get ready: The last "blue moon" for three years will occur on Friday, Aug. 31.
And, no, the moon will not actually be blue.
According to LiveScience's Stephanie Pappas, a blue moon was traditionally defined as the fourth full moon of a season. But since 1946, when a writer for Sky and Telescope either made a mistake or decided to make things simpler, it's come to mean the second full moon in a month.
A full moon occurs every 29.5 days, according to the Associated Press, and the last full moon occurred on Aug. 1.
The next blue moon won't occur until July 2015.
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Uploaded on September 01, 2012