One of the youngsters ran back inside from playing and announced that we had two moons in the outhouse! I walked outside to see what the astronomical anecdote was about. . . and sure enough, we were seeing a double waning crescent due to a very unique angle of the sun and an open outhouse door.
This brought us to thinking. . . we had always heard that a blue moon was the second full moon that occurred in a single calendar month. After some research, it appears that this is not correct, but simply an interpretation error that took place in 1946. Technically, each season (groups of three months beginning with the vernal equinox) normally has three full moons. When a fourth appears within the three consecutive months, such as between the fall equinox and the winter solstice as it did in November 2010, the third moon is considered to be the blue moon. As such, we will have no blue moon again until August 31, 2012.
In the meantime, we can still call our outhouse phenomena a "blue moon" event as it has never been observed prior to this and may not happen again if the outhouse door is always properly closed! Once in a blue moon. . .
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