- Oct 22, 2014
- 24,455
If you are lucky enough to be outside this evening and tomorrow evening, you will get a chance to see what Billie Holiday is singing about. The song is a classic from 1952.
It celebrates the experience of the full moon rising twice in one month. Mother Nature's moon cycle, the rise and fall of a full moon, occurs every 29.5 days.
To a sailor, timekeeping is a critical skill. We need it to help us locate our boat on a vast open sea. When you are alone on the boat surrounded by water, the rise and fall of the sun/moon becomes the rhythm and time keeper of your life.
Ancient civilizations like the Celts, Sumerians, Egyptians, and Mayans created some of the earliest calendars. The lunar-based calendars were used because of the ease in counting the moon phase. Julius Caesar introduced, in 46BC, the Roman Calendar. It was based on 365.25 days a year. This improved matching of the seasons year after year to the days of the year (as long as you added an extra day every four years). The Julian calendar stayed the most accurate for more than 1,600 years.
We can thank Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 for reforming the Julian calendar to what we use today.
Go out this weekend and celebrate the creativity of the ancients for their recognition of the Blue Moon.
The best time to view this Blue Moon may surprise you. Although it reaches peak fullness in the early hours of May 31, many skywatchers prefer to observe it rising on the evening of May 30. As it lifts above the horizon near sunset, the Moon often appears larger and takes on striking deep orange and golden hues. While out there observing the rise and fall of the moon, look for the alignment of planets in the sky. Before sunrise, Mars and Saturn will shine low in the eastern sky. After sunset, Venus and Jupiter will glow brightly in the west as the full moon dominates the night.
Enjoy the evening sky.
John
