Video by Dayna De Hoyos taken on 12/31/2009 10pm
Following story by Christine Russell of THE ATLANTIC online journal
As you ring in the New Year, take your glass of champagne and toast the blue moon in the sky above. It's a once in a generation thing, a special astronomical happening that reminds us that while life is highly unpredictable, the heavens are not.
Tonight's New Year's Eve blue moon is the first since 1990. Another won't roll around for another 19 years. So the time to celebrate is now. I'll walk outside tonight as the clock strikes twelve, bundled up and looking for a blue moon shining over the snowy mountain peaks of Aspen, CO. The blue moon is expected to be visible to New Year's Eve celebrants across the U.S., Canada, Europe, South America and Africa, according to the AP's Alicia Chang. And in New York City, the full moon will be competing with the glittery ball dropping in Times Square (maybe the cameras can capture both).
Of course, the name has nothing to do with its color (although a moon can sometimes appear bluish from the smoke of a forest fire or the ash of a volcano). The old expression, "once in a blue moon," has more to do with something that is rare, special, uncommon, even absurd--but not impossible.
The most popular current definition of a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. A full moon occurred on December 2 and tonight's will be the second, a phenomenon that occurs every 2.5 years (the next will be in August, 2012). But the New Year's Eve blue moon is more exceptional. The next won't occur until 2028. There's no way of knowing where I'll be then, but it is reassuring that, just like clockwork, the blue moon will be there.
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