Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon.
英语文摘：Rare New Year's Eve 'blue moon' to ring in 2010 （ZT）
天文学家表示，12月31日晚上，北美、欧洲和非洲国家的人们将看到本月的第二轮满月，即人们所说的“蓝月”，而东半球的人们则有望观赏到本年度最后一次月偏食。据科学家介绍，在天文历法中，当一个月出现两次满月时，第二个满月就被赋予一个充满神秘浪漫色彩的名字——“蓝月”（Blue Moon）。由于月运周期（月亮绕地球一周）是29.5天，因此，大约每30个月就会出现一轮“蓝月”。据悉，上一次出现“蓝月”是在2007年的5月，而此次新年“蓝月”则更为罕见，科学家称每19年我们才有机会在“蓝月”的映照下迎来新的一年，下一次可就要等到2028年了。
Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon.
Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon. According to popular definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a month. But don't expect it to be blue - the name has nothing to do with the color of our closest celestial neighbor.
A full moon occurred on December 2. It will appear again on Thursday in time for the New Year's countdown.
"If you're in Times Square, you'll see the full moon right above you. It's going to be that brilliant," said Jack Horkheimer, director emeritus of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and host of a weekly astronomy TV show.
The New Year's Eve blue moon will be visible in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Africa. For partygoers in Australia and Asia, the full moon does not show up until New Year's Day, making January a blue moon month for them.
However, the Eastern Hemisphere can celebrate with a partial lunar eclipse on New Year's Eve when part of the moon enters the Earth's shadow. The eclipse will not be visible in the Americas.
A full moon occurs every 29.5 days, and most years have 12. On average, an extra full moon in a month - a blue moon - occurs every 2.5 years. The last time there was a lunar double take was in May 2007. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't come again until 2028.
Blue moons have no astronomical significance, said Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
"`Blue moon' is just a name in the same sense as a `hunter's moon' or a `harvest moon,'" Laughlin said in an e-mail.
The popular definition of blue moon came about after a writer for Sky & Telescope magazine in 1946 misinterpreted the Maine Farmer's Almanac and labeled a blue moon as the second full moon in a month. In fact, the almanac defined a blue moon as the third full moon in a season with four full moons, not the usual three.
Though Sky & Telescope corrected the error decades later, the definition caught on. For purists, however, this New Year's Eve full moon doesn't even qualify as a blue moon. It's just the first full moon of the winter season.
In a tongue-in-cheek essay posted on the magazine's Web site this week, senior contributing editor Kelly Beatty wrote: "If skies are clear when I'm out celebrating, I'll take a peek at that brilliant orb as it rises over the Boston skyline to see if it's an icy shade of blue. Or maybe I'll just howl."
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英语短语：Once In A Blue Moon (ZT)
梁咏琪有一首惹人生醉的粤语歌“Blue moon”（《蓝月亮》）——“罕有一晚可这么，完全让醉意这么，这么这么走进心窝……” 蓝月亮，很富有梦幻的诗歌意象，只是，何时“如水明月”才会变成蓝色？
据物理学家介绍，如果大气层中悬浮有大量的灰尘颗粒，在灰尘的衬托下，月亮看上去会是蓝色的；或者，火山爆发、森林大火，也会让月亮呈现蓝色（如1883年克雷克吐尔岛的火山爆发和1951年的加拿大森林大火）。
现代天文学意义上的blue moon（蓝月亮）指“一个月中的第二次满月”，由于月运周期（月亮绕地球一周）是29.5天，而根据日历，每个月大多都有至少30天，因此，大约每32个月左右会出现一次“一个月两次圆月”现象。
不过，一个月中第二次满月时，月亮未必一定是蓝色的。Blue moon（一个月中的第二次满月）的说法始于1946年。1946年5月，“Sky and Telescope”（《天空和望远镜》）杂志刊登了一篇文章，该文误认为“蓝月亮”和“一个月的第二次满月”之间存在着必然联系。自此，人们常用blue moon来形容这种相隔至少32个月才发生一次的天文现象。
若抛开天文学，在日常生活中，自19世纪末，人们开始用blue moon来形容“罕见、不常发生的事情”，就像梁咏琪在歌曲Blue moon（《蓝月亮》）中所唱的：“罕有一晚可这么……”。
与blue moon相关的短语有once in a blue moon（千载难逢地），例如：This is a chance once in a blue moon.（这可是个千载难逢的好机会。）
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