Rare Halloween Blue Moon Joins October Sky Over New York

NEW YORK — With everything else 2020 has wrought in New York — and, really, almost everywhere on the planet — a blue moon on Halloween sounds about right.

The second full moon of the month is called a blue moon. It so happens that the Oct. 31 full moon rises exactly halfway through fall.

It’s up to you if you view that as something ominous in a year when so much Halloween revelry has been canceled or if you see it as a celestial bone thrown your way by 2020. (We opt for the latter.)

SEE ALSO: Cuomo To Issue Halloween Trick-Or-Treating Guidelines [POLL]

Sandwiched between October’s two full moons — the first is Thursday — are three meteor showers, including one that’s known for spitting fire. Both October full moons will appear large over the horizon and may be more orange, though neither is considered a supermoon.

Instead, the Old Farmer’s Almanac says, it’s a “moon illusion,” explaining that “when the moon is low, it is viewed in relation to earthly objects, such as chimneys and trees, whose size and shape provide scale.”

The brain makes comparisons of the moon on the size of the other objects the eye sees, “and suddenly, the moon looks massive,” the Old Farmer's Almanac says.

The full Halloween hunter’s blue moon is a rare occurrence.

Halloween full moons occur every 19 years in what’s known as a Metonic cycle, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, and it won’t happen again until 2039, hence the cliche, “once in a blue moon.”

But a blue moon on Halloween? That only happens three or four times in a century.

Oh, and it comes the night before Americans “fall back” with the end of daylight saving time — that’s at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1. That’s good news for those of you who plan to stretch your “once in a blue moon” Halloween fun into the wee hours, because it means you’ll be able to loll around in bed for an extra hour.

But first things first:

The first full moon in October is called the harvest moon, although that’s not always the case. The full harvest moon is not associated with a specific month and, in fact, occurs in September in two out of three years, according to The Farmers’ Almanac. The full moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox is called a harvest moon, and fall began this year on Sept. 22.

Whenever it occurs, the first full moon after the equinox is called the harvest moon because it peeks over the horizon soon after sunset, throwing bright moonlight over the landscape in the early evening, lighting the way for farmers to bring in crops in the days before modern tractors with headlights.

The full Oct. 1 harvest moon reaches peak illumination at 5:05 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, but to see it at its most stupendous, check the sky after sunset, which occurs around 6:37 p.m. in New York.

When it’s not regarded as a harvest moon, the October full moon has traditionally been called the hunter’s moon because the moonlight helped hunters preparing for winter to see deer and other game animals in recently cleared fields. It is sometimes referred to as the sanguine or blood moon, perhaps because of the blood associated with hunting, the Old Farmer’s Almanac says, but also possibly because it is associated with the brilliant colors of fall foliage.

Some other names for non-harvest October full moons are the “travel moon” or the “dying grass moon.”

The Oct. 31 full moon reaches peak illumination at 10:51 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Again, check the western horizon at sunset, which occurs around 5:52 p.m. in New York.

In the whatever-it-takes-find-the-best-in-2020 category, October’s sky calendar also has three fall meteor showers to keep an eye on.

The first, Draconid meteor shower, runs Oct. 6-10, peaking the evening of Oct. 7. This is one of only a couple of meteor showers best viewed starting at early nightfall. A nearly full moon won’t rise until mid-to-late evening, so that should give you a few hours to wish upon a falling star without lunar interference.

The Draconids are typically a modest shower with only about 10 shooting stars an hour. But occasionally, Draco the Dragon — the radiant point of the shower — awakens and breathes fire in what’s called an outburst.

That happened two years ago over Europe, when the Draconids’ parent comet, 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, made its closest approach to Earth in 72 years. And in 1933 and 1946, Draco spit out thousands of meteors.

The stars don’t appear aligned for an outburst this year, although nothing’s ever certain when it comes to meteor showers.

The Orionid meteor shower runs from Oct. 2 to Nov. 7, peaking around Oct. 21-22. The Orionids reliably produce around 20 meteors an hour during the peak. Viewing is best after midnight, and a crescent moon will have set before then.

The ancient shower is produced by dust grains left behind by the comet Halley. The meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Orion but can be seen anywhere in the sky.

The long-running Taurid meteor shower, active for longer than any other meteor shower of the year, runs from Sept. 7 to Dec. 10, peaking around Nov. 4-5. It's not particularly prolific, producing only five or 10 shooting stars an hour.

What makes this shooting star show unusual is that the meteors come from separate debris streams — dust grains left behind Asteroid 2004 TG10 and debris from Comet 2P Encke. A first-quarter moon at the shower's peak may block out all but the brightest meteors. After midnight is the best time to look for meteors, which radiate from the constellation Taurus but can be seen anywhere in the sky.