Friday, January 1, 2010

Once in a Blue Moon

The last night of the year 2009 was a special one in Astronomical terms too. It was to be a Blue Moon Day night and top of that a partial lunar eclipse was to be seen.

"Most calendar months see just one full moon. The 29.5 day cadence of the lunar cycle matches up almost perfectly with the 28 to 31 day length of calendar months. Sometimes, however, the one-to-one correspondence breaks resulting in two full moon days in a month. The second one is called a Blue Moon in popular folklore . December month of the current year is such a month. The first full moon in December appeared on 2nd while the second appeared in the sky on 31st, New Year Eve. Data reveals that such a phenomenon did not occur in the 20th and not witnessed so far in the 21st century as well. This celestial rarity will be witnessed on the New Year' eve again only in 2028 and 2066. "

I am thankfull to my friend Pritesh for reminding me about the same at the last hour. I owe this photographs to him. It was really a amazing sight and the time was also very special.

2 comments:

  1. hey , thanks and all keep it with you. Bas kai mitra!!!!
    Photos ek dam masta ahet. mala pan shikav.

    ReplyDelete