David Perlman

Rare blue moon tonight

Wed Oct 31 22:35:30 2001


Via: PLANETNEWS broadcast...


Rare blue moon tonight -
Spooky cluster of stars also will make appearance

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor Wednesday, October 31, 2001

If rain doesn't dampen the parades of trick-or-treaters tonight, they will
see an unusual moon that's been celebrated for centuries, plus a cluster of
stars of legendary spookiness.

Earth's shining satellite tonight is called a blue moon, although when it
rises just after sunset it could look more like a fat bright orange -- a
jack- o'-lantern perhaps, turning white as it climbs high in the sky, and
fading away as it sets toward sunrise.

According to Bing Quock, the Planetarium director at the California Academy
of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, what's so unusual about a blue moon on
Halloween is that it last shone over California in 1944. And there won't be
another until the year 2020 -- time for a new generation of costumed
celebrants.

The blue moon was originally defined by the Maine Farmer's Almanac in 1819 as
an extra full moon within any season. Later, however, the respected
publication Sky and Telescope altered the almanac's definition and since then
it has come to mean the second full moon within a single month. The first
full moon this month was Oct. 2.

No one knows for sure why this rare full moon is called blue, but in
Shakespeare's time, Quock believes, people may have called it blue because
they likened it to the blue-green mold that marks some ripe cheeses.

Perhaps the most famous mysterious words recited at Halloween parties are
those from Shakespeare's three witches in "Macbeth":

But there are many mixtures of evil in pre-Shakespeare Halloween legends,
Quock notes.

Tonight, for example, as the blue moon rises in the east, so will the
Pleiades, the "Seven Sisters," a cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus
the bull. (Actually, there are about 3,000 stars in the Pleiades, not seven).
The cluster will rise about a half-hour after the moon, and should move up
the sky a little below and about 25 degrees to the left of the moon,
according to Quock.

The ancient Celts celebrated the rise of the Pleiades on the night between
the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice -- in other words, on Halloween
night. Their Druids lit candles and bonfires on hilltops beneath the dark oak
forests, and sacrificed crops and animals to begin the "season of darkness
and cold."

In the year 834, the Catholic Church declared All Saints' Day on what is now
Nov. 1. The night before was the eve of all those who had been hallowed, or
consecrated -- Allhallows Eve, or Halloween.

Even earlier, according to some anthropologists, Mayan groups believed that
the Pleiades reigned supreme over the darkness. At midnight each Oct. 31 when
the star cluster was overhead, Mayan priests atop their temple would cut open
a young boy's chest to remove his beating heart.

Somehow, perhaps from that macabre Mayan tradition, plus the original
Allhallows Eve of the Catholic Church and an ancient Aztec festival presided
over by the goddess known as "Lady of the Dead," comes the Mexican "Dia de
los Muertos," whose annual celebration also begins tonight.

The Day of the Dead, celebrated according to Ricardo J. Salvador of Iowa
State University, marks a "traditional blend of ancient aboriginal and
introduced Christian features." It is ''a way of recognizing the cycle of
life and death that is human existence, and ''it is not a morbid occasion but
rather a festive time.''

E-mail David Perlman at dperlman@sfchronicle.com
=============================================================================
Folklore of the "Blue Moon"
http://www.griffithobs.org/IPSBlueMoon.html

Common Errors in "Star of Bethlehem" Planetarium Shows
http://www.griffithobs.org/IPSChristmasErrors.html
 
The Bimillenary of Christ's Birth:
The Astronomical Evidence

Dr. William P. Bidelman
Warner and Swasey Observatory
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
http://www.griffithobs.org/IPSBidelman.html