The Glade 4.0

Lunar cycle crazies are going to be out in force.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091230/ap_ ... _blue_moon


Rare New Year's Eve 'blue moon' to ring in 2010

By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer Alicia Chang, Ap Science Writer – Tue Dec 29, 7:03 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon. According to popular definition, a blue moon is the second full moon 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.

A full moon occurred on Dec. 2. It will appear again on Thursday in time for the New Year's countdown.

"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.

The New Year's Eve 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 New Year's Day, making January a blue moon month for them.

However, the Eastern Hemisphere can celebrate with a partial lunar eclipse on New Year's Eve when part of the moon enters the Earth's shadow. The eclipse will not be visible in the Americas.

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. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't come again until 2028.

Blue moons have no astronomical significance, said Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"`Blue moon' is just a name in the same sense as a `hunter's moon' or a `harvest moon,'" Laughlin said in an e-mail.

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 full moons, not the usual three.

Though Sky & Telescope 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.

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."

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I am predicting the only Blue Moon I'm going to be seeing is coming out of a bottle or a tap. Then I won't see much of anything.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

This has extended much beyond just thursday for me. This whole week sucked a whole big bag of monkey balls. Where all other support technicians have been relatively relaxing due to low call volume, I have been stuck with the very irate and demanding-to-be-updated-constantly customers. A bunch of other stuff. But the latest is that this morning I have a nice big ol' flat tire after coming into work. Attempting to change a tire in nothing but slush with two different jacks that don't work was a whole lot of fun, let me tell you.

And this week still isn't over. Please sir, may have another. Bastard.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

LOL, not working this New Year's Eve, but I will be working New Year's Night. So, I don't have to deal with the drunk crazies, just the hungover ones 8P

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Women are from Hoboken, men are from Trenton. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

Ummmmmmm...I have to work. Guess I am just S.O.L.

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Raell Kromwell

I'm working today till probably 6 o'clock'ish, and I cannot wait for this tour to be over. This base has the most idiotic and disorganized management ever...arghhhhh

/rant off

Anyways, happy new year!

Unless you're at Fort Meade that's just not true

I shall be at work also..we are having a "progressive" party (in between work,of course )

I have to bring cheese...it will be interesting, I'm thinking.

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Dream as if you'll live forever...
...Live as if you'll die tomorrow

Vivere Senza Rimpianti

I have to say that full moon was amazing. It seemed like it was pretty much right over my head at midnight:30 when we went out for a walk through our neighborhood. Our area is on the fringe of town and there are no street lights. The moon was bright it looked like there were street lights though. I can't remember ever being able to see that much detail at night time by just the moon.

It was amazing.

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The Dude abides.

Overcast and foggy here, never a glimpse of it.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

What he said...

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Raell Kromwell

Wish the Valley had light pollution regulation like Tucson does...but we don't have the observatories you do :p. Still, gilbert's not bad, being so big but rural. I'll have to see what it's like tonight.

The blue moon borked our backbone admission software, but left the other programs alone, so I never even got a chance to look at the moon. Lots of fun trying to admit and treat patients that kept getting lost in cyberspace or bumped out thanks to the system zombie readmitting discharges. 48 hours of downtime was no thx...I'll bet they were calling in retired programmers to look at their early 80s code. Then it came back up a half hour before my shift ended, and I had to print off over a hundred patients worth of face sheets and patient labels. I was grouchy.

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Women are from Hoboken, men are from Trenton. ~ Jimmy Kimmel