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<h1>Rare New Year's Eve 'blue moon' to ring in 2010</h1>
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<cite class="vcard">
By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer <span class="fn org">Alicia Chang, Ap Science Writer</span>
</cite>
<abbr title="2009-12-29T16:03:59-0800" class="timedate">Tue Dec 29, 7:03 pm ET</abbr> </div><!-- end .byline -->
<div id="darla-ad__LREC" class="mod ad darla_ad"><br>LOS ANGELES – Once in a <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_0">blue moon</span> there is one on <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_1">New Year's Eve</span>. Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon. According to popular definition, a blue moon is the second <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_2">full moon</span> in a month. But don't expect it to be blue — the name has nothing to do with the color of our closest celestial neighbor.</div>
<p>A full moon occurred on Dec. 2. It will appear again on Thursday in time for the New Year's countdown.</p>
<p>"If
you're in Times Square, you'll see the full moon right above you. It's
going to be that brilliant," said Jack Horkheimer, director emeritus of
the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and host of a weekly astronomy TV
show.</p>
<p><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_3">The New Year's Eve</span>
blue moon will be visible in the United States, Canada, Europe, South
America and Africa. For partygoers in Australia and Asia, the full moon
does not show up until <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_4">New Year's Day</span>, making January a blue moon month for them.</p>
<p>However, the Eastern Hemisphere can celebrate with a partial <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_5">lunar eclipse</span> on New Year's Eve when part of the moon enters the Earth's shadow. The eclipse will not be visible in the Americas.</p>
<p>A
full moon occurs every 29.5 days, and most years have 12. On average,
an extra full moon in a month — a blue moon — occurs every 2.5 years.
The last time there was a lunar double take was in May 2007. <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_6">New Year's Eve blue moons</span> are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't come again until 2028.</p>
<p><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_7">Blue moons</span> have no astronomical significance, said <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_8">Greg Laughlin</span>, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.</p>
<p>"`Blue moon' is just a name in the same sense as a `<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_9">hunter's moon</span>' or a `<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_10">harvest moon</span>,'" Laughlin said in an e-mail.</p>
<p>The
popular definition of blue moon came about after a writer for Sky &
Telescope magazine in 1946 misinterpreted the Maine Farmer's Almanac
and labeled a blue moon as the second full moon in a month. In fact,
the almanac defined a blue moon as the third full moon in a season with
four <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_11">full moons</span>, not the usual three.</p>
<p>Though <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1262131463_12">Sky & Telescope</span>
corrected the error decades later, the definition caught on. For
purists, however, this New Year's Eve full moon doesn't even qualify as
a blue moon. It's just the first full moon of the winter season.</p>
<p>In
a tongue-in-cheek essay posted on the magazine's Web site this week,
senior contributing editor Kelly Beatty wrote: "If skies are clear when
I'm out celebrating, I'll take a peek at that brilliant orb as it rises
over the Boston skyline to see if it's an icy shade of blue. Or maybe
I'll just howl."</p>
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