Blue | Moon

More recently, on July 31, 2015, a Blue Moon was visible across North America, coinciding with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. The Moon appeared blue due to the presence of smoke and ash particles from wildfires in Canada and the western United States.

The science behind the Blue Moon phenomenon is rooted in the Earth’s atmosphere and the way it interacts with sunlight. When particles are present in the atmosphere, they scatter sunlight in different ways, depending on their size and composition. Smaller particles, such as those produced by volcanic eruptions, tend to scatter shorter wavelengths of light, like blue and violet, more than longer wavelengths, like red and orange. This is known as Rayleigh scattering, named after the British physicist Lord Rayleigh, who first described the phenomenon in the late 19th century. blue moon

The term “Blue Moon” has its roots in folklore and mythology. In the 1940s, the Farmers’ Almanac, a publication that has been in print since 1792, began using the term “Blue Moon” to describe the second full Moon in a calendar month. The almanac’s editors believed that this extra full Moon was a rare event that deserved a special name. More recently, on July 31, 2015, a Blue