Moon, Moon, and More Moons.

 Last night as I walked back from Eskimo dance practice, I glanced up in the sky and saw the full moon in the sky.  It wasn't dark yet so it was quite bright but the moon was beautiful and bright.

I usually refer to the moon based on the time of its cycle but there are other ways to refer to the moon.

1. The super moon which refers to the moon when it is large and quite bright due to being closer to the earth.  There will be three super moons during 2019.  One was on January 21, February 19, and the last one will be on March 21st. The one in February was the brightest one for the year.

2. On the other hand, there is the micro moon where it is seen at its smallest size because its at its farthest point from earth.  There are two micro moons schedules during 2019. One happened on February 4th while the other one is not due to happen until September 19th.

3.  Of course, there is the Blood Moon which happens during a full lunar eclipse, giving off red and orange hues.  There are none really scheduled for another 20 years or so that meed the definition of a full blood moon.

4. Remember the phrase "Once in a blue moon"?  Well Blue moon refers to the second full moon that occurs in a month.  It does not refer to the color of the moon.  In addition, some folks refer to a blue moon in terms of  the third or fourth moon during a season but more often people use the first meaning. There will be a seasonal blue moon in May of 2019 but the two moons in a month won't happen until Halloween of 2020.  The term "Blue Moon" originated during the 1940's.

5. The Wolf Moon occurs in January.  It got its name because people often heard the wolves howling at this time of the year.  There are other names for the moon seen in other months such as the Pink Moon or the first full moon in April around the time of the Cherry Blossoms, The Flower or Milk Moon is the first full moon in May, or the Snow Moon from the moon light of the full moon in February which lights up the snow.

6. The Harvest Moon is the full moon that occurs in September or October, closest to the Autumn equinox.

7.  You might hear someone refer to a "Black Moon" which is the second new moon appearing in a month.  These occur only once ever 32 months or so.  A second meaning for "Black Moon" is when no moon appears during a full month.  It is only possible for this to occur during February because the month only has 28 days while the moon takes 29.5 days to circle the earth.

This is only a sample of some of the names of the moons.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.