Rare Black Moon Can Be Seen Right On Time For Halloween!

Right on Time for Halloween, the spookiest day of the year, we can witness a very special event in the night sky: A Black Moon!

The Black Moon can be seen on October 31 at 4.30 am in Australia, New Zealand and East Asia.
The event only occurs if it's the second new moon of the month - since that part of the world already witnessed a new moon on the first of october, this 2nd one makes it a Black Moon.
It’s not entirely sure though if the visibility of the sky will actually be good enough to spot the sky spectacle in all its glory.

While Halloween is originally an American tradition, it has been widely adopted in these regions of the world as well.
Australia has adapted to Halloween a long time ago, since the home of bats, poisonous snakes and huge spiders fits perfectly for the spooky Festival.
Recently, Japan has picked up the cult as well - with costume parties and even McDonalds selling Halloween Fries drizzled with purple yam sauce.

So how does the phenomenon of the Black Moon work?

The moon takes about the same amount of time to finish his orbit around the earth and to rotate on his own axis.

So that means that we can always see the same side of the moon when we look at it from planet earth.

The moon isn’t actually shining, it just reflects the light of the sun.

But the side that’s being lit up isn’t always the side of the moon that we can see.

So to be astronomically and physically correct, there is actually no black side of the moon, since any other side that’s not facing the earth is still reflecting sunlight.

We see the moon changing it’s shape every month, going from a thin C-shape to a round full-moon and back again.

And when the side of the moon that’s not reflecting any light is facing earth, we call it a new moon.

But because our calendar is not the lunar calendar but instead Gregorian, it’s not completely in sync with the phases of the moon.

That’s why it sometimes happens that we experience two new moons or two full moons within 1 calendrical month.

The time period between an old and a new moon cycle lasts about 29 days and is called a „Synodic Month“ (from the greek „Sunodikos“ - Meeting, because the moon „meets“ the sun at new moon.)
A Black Moon is a rare event that only happens about every 32 months, and is only one of many special moon constellations.
The Blue Moon for example is the opposite of a Black Moon, it’s the name for the event of two full moons occurring within one month.
Other interesting phenomenons are the Super Moon where the moon appears to be exceptionally big, and the Blood Moon, where sunlight is being diffused through the earth’s atmosphere and makes the moon reflect a reddish color.

In the home of Halloween, the US, the Black Moon unfortunately won’t be seen again until 2081.

But still, a scary costume and moonlight will turn your night into a spooky and fun Halloween adventure anyway!

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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