Re: new moons (remainder of post)

[VictorEngel]

OOPS! I presses some sort of keystroke that sent the message prematurely.
Here's the rest.

Dear Lance and Calendar People,

> Lance replies:
> (1) No. The list went over this topic several years
> ago, and this simplistic definition of 'blue moon' was
> traced to an error in 'Sky & Telescope'.

As I recall, the term originated from an extra moon in a season, not in a
month. That does not mean that the term blue moon is not used to describe
the second full moon in a month. It is.
 
> (2) A 'blue moon' is intended to be a rarity. Under
> the original and correct definition, it is. The error
> makes a blue moon much more common. Step one, it
> seems, would be to investigate how often such an event
> actually occurs.

I wonder about the relative frequencies of the two definitions. I don't
recall their being so far apart. Using the original definition, the
frequency would be about 1 in 1/(x-12) years, where x is the mean number of
lunations in a year. With the new definition it would be about 7 in 19 years
(235 lunations in 228 months). This winds up being the same frequency,
doesn't it? It's just different lunations.
 
> (4) At the moment, I believe, the situation is
> somewhat analogous to the question of what to call a
> resident of Connecticut. A resident of Texas is a
> Texan,

And he would call a resident of Connecticut a Yankee.

> a resident of Michigan is a Michigander, and so
> on. As it turns out, the correct term is 'a resident
> of Connecticut'. One wonders about the collective
> mental capacity of a group of people who are unable to
> produce a name for themselves after 350 years. But I

You mean like residents of the United States? There's a name for them in
Spanish, Estadounidenses, but there really isn't one in English. The term
American is ambiguous at best.

> Remaining colors might then be 'green', 'purple', and
> 'brown'. 'Indigo' is legitimate, but I suspect 90% of
> the population would not know what it meant, and the
> other 10% would confuse it with purple.

Counfounding this is that Indigo is not reproducible on computer monitors.
Did you know that Newton added indigo to the color wheel in order for there
to be 7 colors?
 
> Clearly, we'd like to steer away from names like
> 'heliotrope' and 'puce'. Ditto for computer palette
> names like 'medium sea green' and 'peach puff 33'.

My brother's favorite color used to be periwinkle. How about burnt orange?
But maybe that color should be reserved for eclipses, like the one coming up
in January.
 
Victor

[Palmen, KEV (Karl)]

Dear Victor, Lance and Calendar People

-----Original Message-----
From: East Carolina University Calendar discussion List
[mailto:[hidden email]]On Behalf Of Engel,Victor
Sent: 05 December 2005 15:38
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: new moons (remainder of post)

As I recall, the term originated from an extra moon in a season, not in a
month. That does not mean that the term blue moon is not used to describe
the second full moon in a month. It is.
 
> (2) A 'blue moon' is intended to be a rarity. Under
> the original and correct definition, it is. The error
> makes a blue moon much more common. Step one, it
> seems, would be to investigate how often such an event
> actually occurs.

I wonder about the relative frequencies of the two definitions. I don't
recall their being so far apart. Using the original definition, the
frequency would be about 1 in 1/(x-12) years, where x is the mean number of
lunations in a year. With the new definition it would be about 7 in 19 years
(235 lunations in 228 months). This winds up being the same frequency,
doesn't it? It's just different lunations.

KARL SAYS:
The only reason why a Gregorian blue moon is more frequent than one based on  seasons is that February can miss a full moon so causing two nearby blue moons to occur.

A similar effect can happen with blue moons based on season, but is much rarer. It happens when there are only two full moons in a season. This can happen in a season ending or beginning with a southern solstice. I recall some calendar person working out such seasons, but it might have been with new moons instead of full moons.

Karl

07(15(05
 

[Lance Latham]

RE: <rest of message>

> You mean like residents of the United States?
> There's a name for them in
> Spanish, Estadounidenses, but there really isn't one
> in English. The term
> American is ambiguous at best.

Lance replies:
Something like that. I notice that Romance languages
seem to be better at producing adjectives for some
reason. English has no adjective related to 'new
moon', for example, but French has 'neomonique', no
problem.

 > Counfounding this is that Indigo is not
reproducible
> on computer monitors.
> Did you know that Newton added indigo to the color
> wheel in order for there
> to be 7 colors?

Lance replies:
No, I wasn't aware of that. The name always seemed
like an unnecessary insertion to me, though.
 
> How about burnt orange?
> But maybe that color should be reserved for
> eclipses, like the one coming up
> in January.

Lance replies:
I like it. Perhaps 'B.O. Moon', then? Okay, 'Almost
Brown Moon'? No? Well, I still like it for full moons.

-Lance


Lance Latham
[hidden email]
Phone:    [phone]
Address: 78 Hudson Avenue/1st Floor, Green Island, NY 12183
 





               
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