Halloween Blue Full Moon might yet entice the Great Pumpkin
Heads-up, Snoopy. The Great Pumpkin may yet show itself this Halloween.
There may be fewer tricks this year as the colossal trickster, the pandemic, squelches house-to-house candy foraging. But the moon itself is set to provide a treat.
A much smaller “pumpkin” – the Red Planet, Mars – is also coming. But more on that later.
First, the moon.
We had a full one on Oct. 1, and usually that’s it for the month. But this time there will be a second. And for the first time in about 20 years, it’s falling on Halloween, according to Accuweather.
The Halloween sky will offer even more treats than just the moon, AccuWeather points out. Mars, Saturn and Jupiter will also line up next to the moon near the horizon.
The moon is full on Halloween on average about every 19 years, according to NASA. This is the first Halloween full moon since 2001, NASA said. Moreover, every Halloween full moon is blue, though by definition, not color.
It’s known as the Hunter’s Blue Moon, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Before that there was the Harvest Moon, which normally falls in September but this year eked its way into October. Both full moons this month are special, the Almanac said.
“Harvest Moon and the Hunter’s Moon are the only two full Moon names associated with an astronomical event rather than a particular calendar month, which means that the names aren’t tied to a specific month’s full moon,” the Almanac explained.
The Harvest Moon is always the one that falls closest to the autumnal equinox, whether that happens in September or October. The Hunter’s Moon is the first full moon after the Harvest Moon.
While the full moon will reach peak illumination at 10:51 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Halloween morning, it will still appear full that night, the Almanac said. To boot, this month’s blue moon is the first time since 1944 that it has been visibly full simultaneously in all U.S. time zones, reports USA Today.
The next Halloween Blue Moon isn’t until 2039, according to USA Today, which advises spooks to “plan your werewolf costumes accordingly.”
———
©2020 New York Daily News
Visit New York Daily News at www.nydailynews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
