The Wolf Moon

Sadly, I have missed a couple of days posting, but I hope to get back on track.  We enjoy looking at the night sky together and are always interested  when we hear something new to us.  I heard about the "Wolf Moon," on a local news broadcast and thought we would make a point to check it out.

This term was new to us, so we went about doing a little research to find out what the "big deal," was regarding a Wolf Moon.  Come to find out, the "Wolf Moon," is the first new moon of the year.  The "big deal," in regards to this particular one is that it was to be 30% brighter and about 14% wider in appearance. Unfortunately, living in North Alabama, we were on the outside edge of the recent winter storm that passed through and the cloud cover didn't allow for viewing.  We did see some pictures, but they are just not the same as seeing it ourselves.  I have included one of the pictures that we saw.  I am sure you will agree, it is just not the same.

We have discussed the "Blue Moon," in the past and thought we might talk about that in a post, but finding out that each full moon has a name, was something new to us, so we thought we might better share.  If you are curious about the names of all of the full moons, you can click on the highlighted words and it will take you straight to the Farmer's Almanac legend that discusses the stories behind each month's full moon.

Also, I didn't forget!!  A Blue Moon was wrongly interpreted as occurring when there is a second full moon in a given calender month.  Actually, the Blue Moon is the moon that is a thirteenth moon in a calender year. The Blue Moon occurs during the year, dependent on the tradition that the observer is following.  I kind of like the second full moon in a given month the best, because it is simple. 

Next time you look up to see a full moon, I hope you have a little different appreciation for what you are looking.

Andy