C.O.M.P.L.E.X.D: The Blue Moon.

31st August 2012 is not only special because of the national day celebration of my beloved country, Malaysia. This year, it's even more special due to the appearance of the 'Blue Moon'.

When I first heard about it a few weeks ago, I actually thought that the moon will appear blue on that night because of some extraordinary space event. My excitement was short-lived; it was crashed by the Google within a few hours.

The 'blue moon' is actually a phenomenon in which the full moon appears for the second time within a month's duration. This is because the moon usually completes an orbit around the Earth in 29.5 days, but a month is usually 30 or 31 days except for the month of February. So, full moon appears twice a month every two and a half years on average according to NASA.

A picture of the moon taken using blue filter
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/watchtheskies/07jul_bluemoon.html

The second full moon in a month was named as blue moon because of its rare occurrence. The colour blue was particularly selected because it is said that the moon actually appeared blue a few times, when there was either volcanoic eruption or forest fire. That should be one of the coolest things to watch! And also, now I know from where the proverb 'like a blue moon' came from.

I've always enjoyed the company of the moon since I was young; it makes me feel secure. Full moon has always been my favourite. So, I told myself, no way I'm missing the chance to see the full moon. And, I'm glad that I didn't. It was beautiful, as always, though the stars were missing from the sky due to the pollution. :( Oh, well. At least I got to see the moon, although it wasn't actually blue.

Sadly, I couldn't take any picture of the full moon because of the 'oh-so-great' quality of my camera phone. I think I'll just steal some pictures from the web to be pasted here. Perhaps I'll be more prepared when the next blue moon occurs roughly around July 2015.