I just wanted to note, since I missed it yesterday, that Saturday's full moon was a blue moon. ^_^ The original interpretation of the phrase meant "the third full moon in any three-month quarter of the year containing four full moons" (feel free to figure that out and then explain it to me), but James Pruett in the March 1946 Sky and Telescope defined it as the second full moon in any month (based on a misinterpretation), and that's become the standard.
Oh-- and it was also the Full Sturgeon Moon, in case you were curious. And in case you don't happen to have them around your area (I do), a sturgeon is a huge mother of a of primitive fish. They are *the* largest freshwater fish (how do record sizes of 7+ feet, and over 300 pounds grab you?). Don't believe me? Check out this monster out of Lake Michigan. There are even bigger ocean-going varieties, too-- look at the white sturgeon, for example, which lives in the ocean but comes upstream to spawn (like salmon). And you've heard of beluga caviar? (No, it doesn't come from whales. Whales don't lay eggs, silly, they're mammals. Well, okay, some mammals lay eggs-- platypi and echidnas, specifically-- but no whales.) Anyway, I found out that that's a kind of sturgeon, as well.
Posted by gris at August 1, 2004 10:57 PM
