Once in a Blue Moon

When a full moon rises over a snowy landscape, the passage of time slows down. The lunar body seems bigger and brighter as it breaks free of the snow, and when the celestial mechanics that drive the universe lift the moon higher, the folks with imagination can see that there are mountains on the moon and even a sandy ocean called the Sea of Tranquility.

A bright full moon glowing over a snowy landscape can indeed reflect the moonlight and inspire everything from the legends of werewolves to moonshine and mermaids, but not even lunatics can go about the madness of their business without stopping to take a moment to admire our nearest celestial neighbor. When the glory of a rising full moon dominates the planets and the brightest stars in the sky, even the tides of the oceans rush to obey, but when there is a blue super moon on the rise in the tropics, the possibilities and flukes for the future can be as deep and mysterious as the universe.

A super blue moon will rise over Marco, Goodland, and the Isles of Capri on August 30 at 7:58 PM, about the same time as the sunset, and the moon will appear to be 30% brighter than when the moon is at its dimmest. When the supermoon rises, it will also appear to be 14% to 30% larger than a normal full moon because a supermoon only occurs when our lunar heavenly body is the closest to the earth. The size of a normal or micro full moon occurs when the moon’s orbit carries the lunar body further away from the Earth. A supermoon only appears about three to four times a year, but a super blue moon only makes an appearance once every 10 to 20 years. The next super blue moon will occur in January and March 2037. Any full moon that rises twice in the same month is a blue moon, but the dramatic tints and shadows on the surface of the moon will always convey the colors of legends and mystery.

Throughout history, stories of blue and super full moons have captured the imaginations of millions. This is because of the rarity of the occasion and because many of these unusual lunar events coincide with dramatic atmospheric, oceanic, and volcanic upheavals.

One of the first modern-day stories of when the moon climbed into the sky and appeared as a giant blue orb was in 1883. When the Krakatoa volcano erupted on August 27 of that year in the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, the explosion was the equivalent of a 200-megaton hydrogen bomb. Twenty thousand tons of Sulphur rose into the atmosphere as 70% of the island of Krakatoa, and the nearby archipelago fell into the sea and became a cauldron-like hollow of escaping gas and violently erupting volcanic ash.

The volcanic effect on the earth was worldwide. The tremendous volume of volcanic ash rose over the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean to form a giant cloud in the stratosphere that encircled the earth. After the eruption and explosion that blew out windows 60 miles away, sunlight could not reach through the cloud, and the entire earth began a cooling process during the following months.

During the cooling period, when the ash cloud continued to filter the strength of the sun, the full moons that began to follow the eruption began to appear as mysterious blue orbs around the world. In some regions in the northern hemisphere during the following summer, the temperature never became warm enough to grow crops and, on some occasions, because of the encircling ash cloud, snow flurries fell even in summer, and the blue moons became an even deeper blue.

Seafaring tales from sailing ships during blue moon nights have always been the scuttlebutt stories of wooden quarterdecks, and tales of the first mermaids still linger in the full blue moonlight of today.

In ancient times, legends tell of rare blue moons where matchmakers began to rally the young adults of tropical islands into groups where prospective partners for matrimony might fall into love or acts of passion. The matchmakers were hoping for the possibilities of happiness, but on one unforgettable occasion, the intentions of misaligned cupids fell into the depths of disaster and a blue moon cure, or curse, still haunts the oceans today.

One story of the islands begins when a full moon rose that was as blue as an ocean. The color so blue and so bright, it was the same shade as the sea under the light of the day. When the old and spiteful matchmakers of the islands began to decide who would be with whom, several of the beautiful young maidens began to wish upon the blue moon with the hope that true love would come in the moonlight and not the devilish boys who were the grandsons of the greedy matchmakers. After the unfortunate pronouncement was past, and the selfish matchmakers sent the malicious boys with the devilish ways out to search in the moonlight for the fair maidens, the damsels chose the glowing blue water of the oceans to escape the advance of the mismatched men who were chasing the girls that were pure of heart. When the water became the choice over the men of the land, the wishes of the fleeing young damsels became the legacy of the mermaids. Under the moonlight of the very first full and giant blue moon, the maiden's feet and legs became tails like the fastest fish and the new but beautiful creatures that could never grow old could always find refuge under the sea until a true love came calling under the light of another full and giant blue moon.