A Rare Blue Moon Will Light Up The Night Sky On Halloween, Making It Extra Spooky

Halloween is just around the corner, and while the festivities might not be the same as before owing to the pandemic, we're up for a treat this year. Even though we might have to stay at home, this year's Halloween will be a treat for fans of stargazing. A rare blue moon will be rising on Halloween, which makes it for a spooky night. Literally once in a blue moon, this Halloween is. The first full moon of this year was on January 10 and it was named Full Wolf Moon. According to the Farmer's Almanac, this moon gets its name from the howling of the wolves during the cold winter nights outside the native American villages.

We were fortunate enough to see a full moon on October 1 and a Blue Moon will rise on October 31, hence the phrase 'Once in a blue moon'. According to NASA, usually, months have only one full moon, but occasionally a second one sneaks in. Full moons are separated by 29 days, while most months are 30 or 31 days long; so it is possible to fit two full moons in a single month. This happens, on average, every two and a half years. In simple language, the appearance of a second full moon within a calendar month happens only once every 32 months. 

NASA explains, "Most blue moons look pale gray and white, indistinguishable from any other moon you've ever seen. Squeezing a second full moon into a calendar month doesn't change the physical properties of the moon itself, so the color remains the same." This makes for 13 full moons that we can expect this year, NJ.com reports. AccuWeather meteorologist Brian Lada said that even though the rare Blue Moon appears only once every three-four years, the chances of it happening on Halloween night are even rarer. He said, "After the blue moon on Oct. 31, 2020, trick-or-treaters will need to wait until 2039 to see the next blue moon on Halloween."

Apart from this, there were two supermoons in 2020. A supermoon looks larger because it's a bit closer to Earth and the moon looks almost fourteen times larger and 30 times brighter. The first Supermoon named the Worm Moon happened on March 9, and the second one took place on April 7, called a Pink Moon. Meanwhile, a blood moon, which happens during a lunar eclipse, won't occur until May 26, 2021. Supermoons take place when moons become full when their orbits are closer than average to the Earth, and that makes them appear slightly bigger and about 30 percent brighter than ordinary full moons that we observe.

Even though the precise definition of the full moon varies in the field of astronomy, but some experts say that the average stargazer won’t notice the size and brightness difference since most of the supermoons that we observe tracks less than 223,000 miles from the Earth during its full phase. Though the exact phenomenon is way more dazzling than we can explain in words April's full moon is said to be the biggest one this year. Those who wish to get a keener look at the complete list of the dates for each full moon in 2020, along with their most common nicknames can do so on the Farmer's Almanac or on TimeAndDate.com.