New Delhi,22/8:The festival of Raksha Bandhan is being celebrated with pomp in the country on Sunday. On this day an astronomical event is also going to happen in space. According to the American Astronomical Society, a blue moon will be visible in the sky on Sunday. According to Sky & Telescope magazine, the moon is not actually blue on such nights, but a ‘blue moon’ means the third full moon of the four-full moon season.
Know everything about it here-
1. This term was once misunderstood by amateur astronomer Hugh Pruett, who incorrectly assumed that the definition in the Maine Farmers’ Almanac meant Blue Moons referred to the second full moon in a month. Pruett wrote regularly for Sky & Telescope magazine.
2. Although the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) believes that there are two types of Blue Moon – monthly and seasonal. Pruett’s definition of a Blue Moon is what NASA calls the Monthly Blue Moon. According to NASA, a monthly blue moon is the second full moon with two full moons in a calendar month. Then there is a seasonal or seasonal Blue Moon – this is the third full moon of an astronomical season, which has four full moons.
3. Sky & Telescope editors and writers continue to use the term Blue Moon to define the third full moon in the four-full moon season. “Introducing a Blue Moon means that traditional full moon names, such as Wolf Moon and Harvest Moon, stick with their seasons,” says Diana Hanniken, Observing Editor of Sky & Telescope.
4. The word ‘Blue Moon’ does not mean that the Moon changes its colour. This can happen only because of water droplets in the air, certain types of clouds, natural disasters such as volcanic ash and smoke particles thrown into the atmosphere. This is an extremely rare event. NASA says that blue moons appeared for years after the eruption of an Indonesian volcano named Krakatoa in 1883.