2010 is just around the corner. A blue moon is expected in New Year’s Eve and a possible eruption of a volcano is seen.

A blue moon New Year’s Eve is visible in United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Africa. Blue moon is popularly known as the second full moon in a calendar month since the March 1946 Sky and Telescope article “Once in a Blue Moon” by James Hugh Pruett misinterpreted the 1937 Maine Farmers’ Almanac. The almanac defined blue moon as the third full moon in a season with four full moons, not the usual three. Though it was corrected in 1999, the definition caught on.

In Australia and Asia, the full moon would be at January 1 making the month of January as a blue moon month but in this part of the world a partial lunar eclipse is visible at New Year’s Eve.

Since full moon is expected to be at New Year’s Day in the Philippines, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) is on alert of the possibility that this might trigger the long-awaited hazardous eruption of the volcano. There were cases in the past when major eruptions of Mayon occurred during full moon or what volcanologists called as earth tide, a time when the moon is closer to the earth and its gravitational pull stronger. The volcano has been spewing lava and flaming rocks the size of cars in a quiet but steady eruption since last month.

So this might be the case, the people in United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Africa celebrating a Blue Moon New Year’s Eve but would not be seeing an actual moon that is blue in colour but people here in the Philippines not having a blue moon until the end of January might be seeing a moon that is blue in colour due to volcanic eruption. So as the saying goes it is really once in a blue moon event. Happy New Year!