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The Moon causes all kinds of things to happen to animals, plants, the Earth's crust rises and Oceans rise and fall.It keeps the Earth at a safe distance from the Sun, and does many other things to the Earth and nature constantly.

So once in a blue Moon there's something else the Moon does, and that's to be full twice in a month, and you have a "blue Moon!"

                With help from Margaret Vaverek (Southwest Texas State
                 University) and several other librarians, there are now
                 more than 40 editions of the Maine Farmers' Almanac from the
                 period 1819 to 1962. These refer to more than a dozen Blue
                 Moons, and not one of them is the second full Moon in a month.
                 What's going on here?

                 Blue Moons and the Seasons

                 Several clues point to a strong connection between the almanac's
                 Blue Moons and the four seasons of the year. All of the listed Blue
                 Moons fall on the 20th, 21st, 22nd, or 23rd day of November,
                 May, February, or August. These dates fall about a month before
                 the Northern Hemisphere winter and summer solstices, and
                 spring and fall equinoxes, respectively, which occur on similar day
                 numbers.

                 Although the idea of a seasonal pattern suggested itself
                 immediately, verifying the details required a lot of detective
                 work.  They found that the Blue-Moon definition employed in the
                 Maine Farmers' Almanac is indeed based on the seasons, but
                 with some subtle twists.

                 Instead of the calendar year running from January 1st through
                 December 31st, the almanac relies on the tropical year, defined
                 as extending from one winter solstice ("Yule") to the next. Most
                 tropical years contain 12 full Moons ‹ three each in winter, spring,
                 summer, and fall ‹ and each is named for an activity appropriate
                 to the time of year (such as the Harvest Moon in autumn). But
                 occasionally a tropical year contains 13 full Moons, such that one
                 season has four rather than the usual three.

                 Today we usually mark the beginning of the seasons when the
                 Sun's celestial longitude passes 0° (spring), 90° (summer), 180°
                 (autumn), and 270° (winter). The Sun appears to move along the
                 ecliptic at a variable rate because of the Earth's not-quite-circular
                 orbit, so the seasons defined this way are not equal in duration.
                 Another approach uses the dynamical mean Sun or fictitious
                 mean Sun ‹ imaginary bodies that move along the ecliptic and the
                 celestial equator, respectively, at a constant rate ‹ and produces
                 seasons of equal length. The Maine almanac defines the seasons
                 using this alternative method.

                 The almanac also follows certain rules laid down as part of the
                 Gregorian calendar reform in 1582. The ecclesiastical vernal
                 (spring) equinox always falls on March 21st, regardless of the
                 position of the Sun. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 46 days
                 before Easter, and must contain the Lenten Moon, considered to
                 be the last full Moon of winter. The first full Moon of spring is
                 called the Egg Moon (or Easter Moon, or Paschal Moon) and
                 must fall within the week before Easter.

                 At last Astronomer's  have the "Maine rule" for Blue Moons: Seasonal Moon
                 names are assigned near the spring equinox in accordance with
                 the ecclesiastical rules for determining the dates of Easter and
                 Lent. The beginnings of summer, fall, and winter are determined
                 by the dynamical mean Sun. When a season contains four full
                 Moons, the third is called a Blue Moon.

                 Why is the third full Moon identified as the extra one in a season
                 with four? Because only then will the names of the other full
                 Moons, such as the Moon Before Yule and the Moon After Yule,
                 fall at the proper times relative to the solstices and equinoxes.

                 During the period 1932 to 1957, under the editorship of Henry
                 Porter Trefethen (1887­1957), the Maine Farmers' Almanac
                 consistently listed Blue Moons derived from the convoluted
                 seasonal rule just described. So where did the modern
                 convention ‹ that a Blue Moon is the second full Moon in a
                 calendar month ‹ come from?

                 Laurence J. Lafleur (1907­1966) of Antioch College, Ohio,
                 discussed Blue Moons in a question-and-answer column in Sky & Telescope magazine,
                 July 1943 issue (page 17), citing the 1937 Maine
                 Farmers' Almanac as his source. It is clear that Lafleur had a
                 copy of the almanac at his side as he wrote, since he quoted
                 word for word the commentary on the August 1937 calendar
                 page. This commentary notes that the Moon occasionally "comes
                 full thirteen times in a year," but Lafleur did not judge whether this
                 referred to a tropical year or a calendar year. More important, he
                 did not mention the specific dates of any Blue Moons and never
                 said anything about two full Moons in one calendar month.

                 The Next Blue Moon

                 According to the rule in the Maine Farmers' Almanac, none of the
                 full Moons in 1999 are "blue." Instead, our calculations place four
                 full Moons between the winter solstice of 1999 (determined by the
                 mean Sun) and the Easter Moon of April 2000. So the next Blue
                 Moon falls on February 19, 2000.

                 With two decades of popular usage behind it, the
                 second-full-Moon-in-a-month (mis)interpretation is like a genie
                 that can't be forced back into its bottle. But that's not necessarily
                 a bad thing. Rather than argue over whether to celebrate the
                 dawn of the new millennium on January 1st in 2000 or 2001,
                 those with the sunniest outlooks will celebrate twice. Why not treat
                 Blue Moons the same way, marking both the second full Moon in
                 a calendar month and the third full Moon in a season with four?
                 "Even if the calendrical meaning is new," says Federer, "I don't
                 see any harm in it. It's something fun to talk about, and it helps
                 attract people to astronomy." Have fun looking up the next Blue Moon!
 
 

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