Starship Asterisk*

APOD Robot wrote: Blue Moon Eclipse

The New Year's Eve Blue Moon eclipse was visible throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and parts of Alaska,
captured in this two exposure composite in cloudy skies over Saint Bonnet de Mure, France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince wrote:


<<In The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry talks about being stranded in the desert beside a crashed aircraft. This account clearly draws on his own experience in the Sahara, an ordeal he described in detail in his book Wind, Sand and Stars. [74 years ago] on December 30, 1935 at 14:45, after 18 hours and 36 minutes in the air, Saint-Exupéry, along with his navigator André Prévot, crashed in the Libyan Sahara desert. They were attempting to break the record for the Paris-to-Saigon flight and win a prize of 150,000 francs. Both survived the crash, only to face rapid dehydration. Their maps were primitive and ambiguous. Lost in the desert with a few grapes, a single orange, and some wine, the pair had only one day's worth of liquid. After the first day, they had nothing. They both began to see mirages, which were quickly followed by more vivid hallucinations. Between the second and the third day, they were so dehydrated that they stopped sweating altogether. Finally, on the fourth day [January 2, 1936], a Bedouin on a camel discovered them and administered a native rehydration treatment that saved Saint-Exupéry and Prévot's lives.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petit-Prince_%28moon%29 wrote:
(45) Eugenia I Petit-Prince is the larger, outer moon of asteroid 45 Eugenia. It was discovered in 1998 by astronomers at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Petit-Prince was named in 2003 after Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's character The Little Prince, who lives on an asteroid called B612 and was in turn based on the Prince Imperial, son of Napoleon III of France and Empress Eugenia.

Petit-Prince is 13 km in diameter, compared to 45 Eugenia's 214 km. It takes five days to complete an orbit around Eugenia. Petit-Prince was the first asteroid moon to be discovered by a ground-based telescope. Previously, the only known moon of an asteroid was Dactyl, discovered by the Galileo space probe around 243 Ida.

Code: Select all

Satellite of 	45 Eugenia
Semi-major axis 	1184 ± 12 km
Eccentricity 	0.0100 ± 0.0002
Orbital period 	4.766 ± 0.001 d
Average orbital speed 	18.1 m/s
Inclination 	8.0 ± 0.1° (with respect to Eugenia equator)

Physical characteristics
Dimensions 	~ 13 km (estimate)
Mass 	~ 1.2 × 1015 kg (estimate)
Equatorial escape velocity 	~ 5 m/s (estimate)

-----------------------------------------
46610 Besixdouze is an asteroid belonging to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The name was suggested by F. Hemery and J. Grygar in 1993, as a reference to the French short story The Little Prince, where the title character lived on an asteroid named B612. In Lutz D. Schmadel's reference book titled Dictionary of Minor Planets, the asteroid is mistakenly stated to have first been noticed in 1909, and mentioned in a 1920 astronomical presentation, although this was actually the fictional history of the planet's namesake in the story by Antoine de Saint Exupéry.
46610 is the decimal equivalent of the hexadecimal number B612.
-----------------------------------------
612 Veronika is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. In The Little Prince, the famous story written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the asteroid from which the main character comes is identified with the name B 612.
-----------------------------------------
2578 Saint-Exupéry is a small main belt asteroid, which was discovered by Tamara M. Smirnova on November 2, 1975.
-----------------------------------------

spicaman wrote:it looks to me that the clouds are behind the moon. whats up with that?

spicaman wrote:it looks to me that the clouds are behind the moon. whats up with that?

geckzilla wrote:That happens sometimes when the clouds are so tenuous that the moon's light overpowers them. But I agree it looks odd. It looks the photographer took two or more shots of the scene and then combined them later digitally. Hard to tell, though.

boneking wrote:There is really no such thing as a "blue moon".

The trendy definition of "Blue Moon" as the second full Moon in a month is a mistake.

MississaugaMike wrote:APOD may want to review an article by Canadian astronomer Terence Dickenson...

Chris Peterson wrote:

MississaugaMike wrote:APOD may want to review an article by Canadian astronomer Terence Dickenson...

Of course, there's nothing bogus about a blue moon, and it isn't urban legend. A blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. It doesn't matter in the slightest if the term came about because of a mistake- if we excluded things from our language on that basis, we'd probably lose some of our richest expressions. The simple fact is that people have been using "blue moon" in this way for three decades, and it is only becoming more widely used with the passage of time. It is an interesting event that occurs rarely enough to attract attention, but often enough that people will see quite a few in a lifetime. It's a curiosity that deserves a name, and "blue moon" works just fine. I'm happy to see coverage of such things in the popular press; anything that turns people's eyes to the sky is a good thing.

• -------------------------------------------------------------
  George Costanza: Who invaded Spain in the Eighth Century?
  
  Bubble Boy: That's a joke - the Moors.
  
  George: Oh no - I'm so sorry, it's the Moops. The correct answer is the Moops.
  
  Bubble Boy: Moops? Let me see that. That's not Moops, you jerk. It's Moors. It's a misprint.
  
  George: Sorry, the card says Moops.
  
  Bubble Boy: It doesn't matter. It's Moors - there's no Moops.
  
  George: It's Moops.
  
  Bubble Boy: Moors!
  
  George: Moops!
  
  George: Help! Someone!
  
  Bubble Boy: There's no Moops, you idiot.
  ------------------------------------------------------

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/269500.html wrote:
<<The 'blue moon' expression itself is old and dates back to mediaeval England. For example, a work by William Barlow, the Bishop of Chichester, the Treatyse of the Buryall of the Masse, 1528, which is more commonly known by its first line, Rede me and be nott wrothe, For I say no things but trothe included a reference to a blue moon:

"Yf they saye the mone is belewe, We must beleve that it is true."

A blue moon was a synonym for absurdity - considered to be as likely as the moon being made out of green cheese. This imagery was called on in John Frith's exhaustively entitled essay A pistle to the christen reader; the reuelation of antichrist: antithesis wherein are compared togeder Christes actes and oure holye father the Popes, 1529

"They wold make men beleue... that ye mone is made of grene chese."

http://www.evolvingdoor.ca/miscarticles/bluemoon.php

<<The current popular definition of a Blue Moon is “the second Full Moon in the same calendar month.” But just figuring out when any Full Moon takes place can be tricky business. Time zones must be taken into account, which could change the day and even the month that it falls on. My Canadian calendar for 2004 says there is a Full Moon on July 31 at 2:04 PM, Eastern Daylight Time, but a calendar sold in Tokyo, for instance, would show it on August 1 at 3:05 AM. We know there are also Full Moons on July 2 and August 29 (or 30, in the far east time zones), so depending on where you live the second Moon will either be on July 31 or August 30. Does this really mean the “Blue Moon” is different for different parts of the world? Well, yes and no.

The deeper problem is that the popular definition of “Blue Moon”—the second Full Moon in a calendar month—is based on misinterpreted information that was published in a Sky and Telescope magazine article in 1946! Ironically, it was a 1999 article in the same magazine that discovered and corrected the mistake, but by that time the media, Internet, and even the Trivial Pursuit game, had proliferated the incorrect definition and now most of the world understands an incorrect, if persistent, definition of “Blue Moon.”

So Just What Is A "Blue Moon?"

An older traditional meaning of “Blue Moon” goes back to the 19th century and means the third Full Moon in a season which has four Full Moons. So what, you say? Well, each season consists of 3 months, typically with one Full Moon per month, so having four Full Moons land in a 3-month season is something that happens, quite literally, only once in a Blue Moon. The Maine Farmers’ Almanac (which was incorrectly referenced in the now-infamous 1946 article) reportedly marked this third of four Full Moons in blue, in honour of an even older use of the term.

What—another definition?? Yup. The earliest reference to anything about a “blue Moon” comes from a rhyme going back to 1528: “If they say the Moon is blue, We must believe that it is true.” Saying the Moon was blue was like saying the Moon was made of green cheese—in other words, it was an unquestioned impossibility.

Or is it impossible?? There is yet another explanation of “Blue Moon” which refers to the actual colour of the Moon to the naked eye. Now: I’ve seen brilliant white Moons and warm yellowish Moons, orange and blood red Moons during lunar eclipses, but I’ve never seen a blue Moon. However, there are times throughout history when the Moon actually had a bluish tinge, after forest fires or volcanic eruptions, caused by refracted light in Earth’s atmosphere. (By the way, the Moon could be in any visible lunar phase for this to happen, not just a Full Moon.)

The actual phrase “once in a blue Moon” apparently dates back to the mid-19th century. By this time it was reasonably well known that occasionally the Moon really did appear blue under certain atmospheric conditions, so the phrase took on the revised meaning of “once in a while,” rather than “never” or “gimme a break!”

Odd Moon Out

But wait a second—how did we get from a silly cultural expression to the third Full Moon out of four being marked in the Maine Farmers’ Almanac? And more to the point, why would anyone care how many Full Moons there are in a season?

The main reason for identifying the seasonal Full Moons was to calculate Christian holidays. Easter is deemed to be the Sunday after the first Full Moon following the vernal (spring) equinox (called the Paschal or “Passover” Moon in the Jewish calendar—Jesus being Jewish, and the timing of Easter being linked to Passover). Since many Christian holidays are timed in relation to Easter, it became extremely important to be able to determine an accurate date for it.

Full Moons are given special names and meanings in many cultural traditions, as any good Pagan knows. Full Moons are spaced 29.5 days apart, so there is typically one per month—12 months, 12 Moon names, 12 Full Moons. So far so good. The problem comes when we occasionally get 13 Full Moons in the span of a year (which happens about every 2-3 years). With only 12 Moon designations, what to do with the 13th Moon? The Maine Farmers’ Almanac claimed this caused the early Christian monks such distress when calculating their calendars that it is the reason why the number 13 became cursed as being unlucky. At some point this extra Moon became known as the “Blue Moon,” which was deemed to be the third Full Moon in a season that had an extra—fourth—Full Moon.

The Well-Seasoned Moon

But wait a minute—the third Full Moon? Why not the fourth, which would seem logical as the “extra” Moon in a season normally populated by three? For this we must go back to the Easter-related Christian holidays. The period of Lent, which begins precisely 46 days before Easter, must contain the Lenten Moon which is considered to be the last Full Moon of the winter season which ends at the vernal equinox.

Ahhh, now we start to see the need to count the number of Moons per season! Since the last Moon of a season can be special (e.g., Lenten Moon) and the first Moon can be special (e.g., Paschal Moon), the “extra” position falls to the second or third Moon in a season that happens to contain four. Why the third is designated as the “extra” rather than the second remains a mystery—no one seems to know where the Maine Farmers’ Almanac got their “Blue Moon” rule from. One website I found speculates that Full Moons were simply counted as the “first,” “second” and “last” of a season, so that the extra defaulted to the third.

So now all that’s left is to figure out the beginning and end of the seasons, which is straightforward—right? Well, again, not exactly. Seasons are defined by the solstices (times of maximum or minimum daylight, in June and December) and the equinoxes (times of equal day and night, in March and September). But anyone born near the cusp between two zodiac signs knows that the position of the Sun varies slightly from year to year. The Sun actually reaches the vernal equinox position anywhere from the evening of March 19 to the early morning of March 22, depending on the year and which time zone you happen to be in at the time.

And then there’s whether you calculate the equinox by the Sun’s actual position or by averaging its position (like the Maine Almanac did), or just using a fixed date (like the Roman Catholic Church does). Just as time zones can complicate the date of Blue Moons rendered by the “monthly” method, your method of calculating the equinoxes and solstices can change which season winds up saddled with the 13th Full Moon. You can start to sympathise with those poor Christian monks!

Blue Moon? You Choose!

So at the end of the day (or month...or season) just when is the next Blue Moon, and how often does it happen? By the current popular definition (two Moons in a month) a Blue Moon happens about every 2½ years, and by the older definition (third Moon in a season of four) it is about the same frequency, but the formulae yield totally different dates and even different years. The next Blue Moon by the “monthly” definition is July 31, 2004...or August 30 if you happen to be reading this while basking on a beach in the Fiji Islands. By the older “seasonal” calculation, there hasn’t been a Blue Moon since 2002 (in either August or November, depending on how you partition your seasons) and there won’t be one again until August 2005.

© 2004, Wendy Guy. All rights reserved. Originally published in the Summer 2004 issue of Cauldron and Quill Magazine.

neufer wrote:...WRONG! (And Pluto is NOT a planet).

It is ridiculous to define a "blue moon" as something that depends on what time zone one lives in.

Chris Peterson wrote:

neufer wrote:...WRONG! (And Pluto is NOT a planet).

Of course it is. (I'm surprised somebody as interested in language and culture as yourself would limit yourself to just one definition, that provided by the IAU, which doesn't even have any actual naming authority.)

• ----------------------------------------
  ___ King Lear > Act I, scene V
  
  Fool: The reason why the seven stars
  ___ are no more than seven is a pretty reason.
  
  KING LEAR: Because they are not eight?
  
  Fool: Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.
  ----------------------------------------

Chris Peterson wrote:

neufer wrote:It is ridiculous to define a "blue moon" as something that depends on what time zone one lives in.

Why? We don't have a problem defining other astronomical events, such as eclipses, that aren't visible from every location.

• ----------------------------------------
  JERRY: By the way Newman, I'm just curious.
  When you booked the hotel, did you book it for the millennium New Year?
  
  NEWMAN: (smug) As a matter of fact, I did.
  
  JERRY: Oh, that's interesting, because as everyone knows, since there was no
  year zero, the millennium doesn't begin until the year two-thousand and one.
  Which would make your party, one year late, and thus, quite lame.
  ----------------------------------------

neufer wrote:I'm surprised somebody as intellectual as yourself doesn't appreciate the value of some sort of standard naming convention.

Astronomical events, such as eclipses, take place regardless of whether they are observed or not.

A "blue moon by your definition" is simply a curious local time zone/calendar non event

Chris Peterson wrote:Surely you aren't suggesting that Pluto is a dwarf planet but is not a planet?

Chris Peterson wrote:

neufer wrote:Astronomical events, such as eclipses, take place regardless of whether they are observed or not.

And blue moons take place, regardless of whether they happen in your particular time zone.

Chris Peterson wrote:

neufer wrote:A "blue moon by your definition" is simply a curious local time zone/calendar non event

It is a real event, even if it's just a curious interaction between the lunar cycle and our calendar. Why shouldn't we take notice of such a thing, give it a name, and celebrate it? How does the fact that it has no physical astronomical significance matter? We recognize and celebrate all sorts of things that lack physical significance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus wrote:
The basics of the Festivus pole are explained by Frank Costanza:

Cosmo Kramer: "And is there a tree?"

Frank Costanza: "No, instead, there's a pole. It requires no decoration. I find tinsel distracting."

Frank Costanza: "It's made from aluminum. Very high strength-to-weight ratio."

When not being used, the aluminum pole is stored in the Costanzas' crawl space.

Chris Peterson wrote:I'm not arguing that a blue moon is astronomically significant. I'm arguing that it's culturally significant.
The idea clearly holds some fascination for many people, and I don't see what's wrong with that.

• "Yf they saye the mone is belewe, We must beleve that it is true."

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/269500.html wrote:
<<The 'blue moon' expression itself is old and dates back to mediaeval England. For example, a work by William Barlow, the Bishop of Chichester, the Treatyse of the Buryall of the Masse, 1528, which is more commonly known by its first line, Rede me and be nott wrothe, For I say no things but trothe included a reference to a blue moon:

"Yf they saye the mone is belewe, We must beleve that it is true."

A blue moon was a synonym for absurdity - considered to be as likely as the moon being made out of green cheese. This imagery was called on in John Frith's exhaustively entitled essay A pistle to the christen reader; the reuelation of antichrist: antithesis wherein are compared togeder Christes actes and oure holye father the Popes, 1529

"They wold make men beleue... that ye mone is made of grene chese."

neufer wrote:There are eight planets in our solar system...period.

I am also suggesting that your version of "blue moon" is nothing more than a curious local time zone/calendar non event and not any kind of moon.

And blue moons take place, regardless of whether they happen in your particular time zone.

No they don't.

Celebrate a ridiculous 3 decade old tradition?