does anyone know the meaning of the phrase "Once in a blue moon" and why it is relevent now ?

Question

IN SCIENTIFIC TERMS PLEASE !

Answer 1

A "blue moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month. It's relevant now because there are 2 full moons in June, the next one will be on June 30, the first one was on June 1. Since a full moon occurs about every 29 days and a month is about 30 days you can see that most months will have only one full moon. But occasionally the 29 day period between full moons falls entirely within one month, then the second full moon is called a "blue moon". So "once in a blue moon" means infrequently or occasionally - as often as a month has two full moons.

Answer 2

The meaning of the phrase "once in a blue moon" simply means "extremely rare". The moon can really have the color blue, in very rare occasions, as explained in the first link below. This has nothing to do with the phase of the Moon, but with occurrences which put a lot of dust in the atmosphere (such as the eruption of Krakatoa, in 1883; the ash scattered the red component of the moonlight, leaving it seen as blue)

The answer you will get is that "blue moon"is the second full moon in a calendar month. For some reason, people don't accept any other answer, even when pointed to the source of this meaning (an error in a "Sky and Telescope" in 1946, see the two links below). The "Farmer's almanac" definition, in use far longer than the currently accepted one, is the "third full moon in a season with 4 full moons" (the boundaries between seasons being defined astronomically, by solstices and equinoxes).

Answer 3

Well. most everyone else has given you just about all the info you need but here's a neat observation based on the "2 full moons in a month" idea. I live in the UTC-5 time zone and a "blue" moon occured a couple of years back. But the moon wasn't full until sometime after 11:00 pm on the last day of the month. What was neat was that my relatives, who live in the UTC-4 time zone wouldn't get their "Blue" moon until the end of the following month. It was already the 1st of the month for them. How's that for timing?

Answer 4

it is the second Full Moon to occur in a single calendar month.The average interval between Full Moons is about 29.5 days, whilst the length of an average month is roughly 30.5 days. This makes it very unlikely that any given month will contain two Full Moons, though it does sometimes happen.

On average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons in every century, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years.

Answer 5

Once in a blue moon means 2 full moons in a month. June 2007 has 2 full moons, implicating that "June 2007 is once in a blue moon".

Answer 6

There are a couple of definitions - recently it's been used to describe the second full moon in a calendar month, but that's not historically correct. Originally, it was used to describe the third full moon in a season with four full moons. Each full moon in a season (usually three) has a name, so any extras needed a different name. Check out wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon

Answer 7

Blue moons are full moons that happen TWICE in a single month. The second full moon is the blue one. We just had one of these blue moons. That's all.

Answer 8

1. The third full moon in a three-month calendrical season that has four full moons.
2. The second of two full moons occurring in the same month.
Informal. A relatively long period of time: I haven't seen you in a blue moon.

Answer 9

A blue moon is a second full moon in a calendar month.
As this happens not so often the phrase means seldom, rarely, every now and then.

Answer 10

blue moon is the second full moon in the month