There’s supposedly nothing special about a blue moon. A full moon is just a moon phase, and a blue moon is just a designation for certain full moons — the ones timed to fall before the end of a month that already had one full moon.
True, unless it’s like the bizarro blue moon we’re getting in August of 2024, which deserves a fuller explanation.
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Why is August’s full moon considered a blue moon?
August’s single full moon gets its “blue” designation from how many full moons fit in a “tropical year.” Typically this means 12, but the current tropical year has 13. And the extra one gets counted as blue. If you find that unsatisfying — perhaps because it’s totally arbitrary and based on concepts like “tropical year” that you didn’t even know existed before today — well, I’m not sure I can help, but I can offer a little more detail.
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