The blue moon could easily be defined as the second full moon of the month but it is also known as the third of the four full moons this summer, which will be best-viewed Tuesday night.
It has easily been referred to as the second full moon because of a mistake made by the magazine Sky & Telescope in the year 1946. This has been a common (but poor) connotation because most months only have one full moon, including August. The blue moon is also referred to by many names such as the full red moon, Full Sturgeon Moon, the Grain Moon and the green corn moon, which came from traditional monikers such as Native American tribes and European settlers.
As for tonight's blue moon, it will be called the Sturgeon Moon, which is being credited to the fishing tribes near the Great Lakes. The Full Red Moon is referred to as such because "the weather and atmospheric conditions during this season can often make the moon look reddish when it rises through a haze," according to Space.com. More information according to Earth Sky states that, "7 out of 19 years will feature two full moons in a month and four in a season".
One of the rarest times a blue moon is well, actually blue was reported in Europe September, 1950 as caused by a major forest fire: "As the day waned, the smoke thinned a bit and the sun could be seen through the blackness as a faint blue orb, but it never did get light outside. After nightfall the moon which was full that night, was blue," according to Spaceweather.com.
The blue moon will be visible come 7:27 PM in Washington and 7:05 AM Wednesday morning. It will be officially a 100% blue moon come 9:45 PM.
Try not to expect too much as the National Weather Service expects there would be quite a thick fog later on tonight.
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