by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: August 12, 2008   Last Updated: March 08, 2009

The month with no moon is February, according to expert calculators. Once in a blue moon there will be no full moon in one of the twelve months. This article will tell you of the calculations of a certain online web site that deals with such moon trivia. They will, along with settling the question of no moon months, define for you what a blue moon is.

Thoughts such as: is there a month with no full moon don't often invade my thinking space. This week they have and it is a charming diversion to follow along as astute human calculators' figure it out. February is the only possibility, they say. (www.obliquity.com/astro/nofullmoon.htm) Their calculations tell us that "the mean lunar month is 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes". This can vary slightly.

They explain how a shorter lunar month happens: since both the sun and the moon move at varying speeds, according to atmospheric conditions, some months have shorter lunar cycles. Examples: When the moon travels faster than ordinary and the suns are slower than usual, the moon overtakes the sun and this creates a short lunar month.

Conversely, when the sun is moving rapidly and the moon is cruising along at slower than usual speeds, the moon finally catches up and this makes a longer lunar month. When there are no full moons in February it nearly always happens in a non-lunar month with only 28 days; although it is possible in a 29 day February.

The owners of these facts, the obliquity guys figure from 2000 to 2009 the following statistics will show how many no moon months we can expect: There are 12,368 full moons in this space of time and 950 of them are in February. "Since a thousand years must include a thousand Februaries, it is obvious 952 of them are in February. Since a thousand years must include a thousand Februaries, it is obvious that 48 of these are missing a full moon".

They found 240 full moons in the thousand of Februaries, and since there are 243 leap years, only 240 of them have a full moon. Therefore they say there will be three Februaries without a full moon. These will happen in 2572, 2792, and in 2944. In these years January and March will have inherited two full moons.

Check out this site for other moon facts and to learn of yarns and myths and other moon facts. A blue moon is when there are two full moons in one month. It is not the kind of moon that shines only in Kentucky. Regardless of what the Kentucky Blue Grass boys tell you, they get no special privileges where the moon is concerned. It is strickly an equal opportunity force, shining on all alike, according to their position on the earth's surface.

The perpetrators of that bit of fluff got all their facts from the legendary Bill Monroe, their leader. I always assumed the blue moon that shines on Kentucky was imaginatively thought up reflections of the Kentucky Blue grass. When one is somewhat skewered from drinking in too much moonshine and looks at miles and miles of this Kentucky grass along the elaborately manicured horse farms in central Kentucky, it has a bluish look to it. Or I've heard it said. I've never seen Kentucky blue grass, I've only heard it. Whatever, shine on moon everywhere and light our way through the darkness. The moon like everything plentiful is only missed when it is gone. It is hard to find your way at night when you cannot even see your hand in front of you. Without moonshine, this is what happens.

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