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Blue Moon on Halloween: Here’s when and where to watch the rare celestial event occuring first time since WWII

The spectacular cosmic display happens seven times every 19 years, which means the world will not see the next one on October 31 until 2039

Is the Moon going to turn blue this Halloween? If any of you are thinking how the night of October 31, 2020, is going to be with a rare "Blue Moon", then one can say it is going to be the spookiest! However, the Moon that is going to illuminate the sky that day is not going to turn blue. Rather "blue moon" is used as a phrase when a second full moon occurs in one month. The spectacular cosmic display happens seven times every 19 years, which means the world will not see the next one on October 31 until 2039. What makes this event even rarer is that it will be seen in all parts of the world for the first time since World War II.

What is a Blue Moon

This Moon is very distinctive and is named as Blue Moon less due to its color and more due to when it occurs. In the usual course of time, a full moon typically occurs once a month which means 12 full Moons in the entire year. However, when there are 13 full Moons in one year instead of 12, that means we have got a Blue Moon. There are two types of Blue Moons: A full Moon can be considered Blue when it's the second of two full Moons in a calendar month, or when it’s the third of four full Moons in a single season, as stated by Earth Sky.
Coming to this Halloween month of October, it had two full Moons scheduled on Oct. 1 and Oct. 31, 2020. Of them, the latter will be called the Blue Moon.

So are we never going to see an actual blue-colored Moon now? KCCI mentions that while October’s Blue Moon won’t actually appear Blue, it doesn’t mean it’s completely impossible. According to the website Time and Date, a moon can appear blue if the atmosphere is filled with dust or smoke particles of a certain size. Therefore, if a massive volcanic eruption occurred, that could give the Moon a somewhat blueish hue. The 1980 eruption of Mt St Helens in the US, the 1983 eruption of Mt Krakatoa in Indonesia, and the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines are some examples of the Moon appearing to be Blue due to dust.

Where to see Blue Moon

There’s no better way to gear up for Halloween than to watch this rare spectacle which takes place only once every 19 years. Hereunder are the date and time for Blue Moon in October as mentioned by Farmer's Almanac.

Thursday, October 1 – The full Harvest Moon, at 5.05 pm EDT
Saturday, October 31 – The full Halloween Hunter’s Blue Moon at 10.49 am EDT
 
The Internet too is very excited about this once in a Blue Moon phenomenon. A user wrote, “New moon/Blue Moon this Halloween, time to sniff magic fairy dust .” Another relating to the occurrence of this Moon after many years wrote, “44 days until #Halloween which is on a Saturday. It will be a full moon which makes it a Blue Moon as it is the second full moon of the month.It is also known as the Hunter's Moon.I have a feeling it will be extra spooky this year.” One wrote on the spooky vibes. “Halloween is on a Saturday & a full moon, spooky vibes are at 1000%”