With a so-called "blue moon" set to rise in the night sky this Friday (Aug. 31), you may find yourself wondering: Just what is a blue moon, exactly? And where does the term come from?
Somewhat confusingly, the answers have nothing to do with the moon's color. The "blue moon" tale is a convoluted one, with much of the action taking place in the relatively recent past.
Somewhat confusingly, the answers have nothing to do with the moon's color. The "blue moon" tale is a convoluted one, with much of the action taking place in the relatively recent past.
In 1946, "Sky and Telescope" magazine traced the term to the "Maine Farmer's Almanac," where it apparently referred to the third full moon in a season that contains four full moons instead of the usual three.
The year is divided into four equal seasons, each 91 or 92 days long. Because there are 29.5 days between full moons, four full moons occasionally get squeezed into a single season. [Once-in-a-Blue-Moon Not Really Blue (Infographic)]
But the author of the "Sky and Telescope" article misintrepeted this complicated definition, declaring that a "blue moon" is actually the second full moon in a month with two full moons.
The new (and wrong) meaning didn't attain widespread usage until decades later. It was used during a broadcast of the radio show "Stardate" in January 1980, according to a much more recent article in "Sky and Telescope."
Then, in 1981, the designers of the board game Trivial Pursuit came across the 1946 magazine article. They put the definition into the game, and suddenly this incorrect explanation of an unscientific term became “general knowledge.”
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