By Concellation on Friday, 27 August 2021
Category: Fascinating Stuff

A Blue Hour Full Moon

APOD: 2021 August 26 - A Blue Hour Full Moon

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2021 August 26

A Blue Hour Full Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Giorgia Hofer

Explanation: Nature photographers and other fans of planet Earth always look forward to the blue hour. That's the transition in twilight, just before sunrise or after sunset, when the Sun is below the horizon but land and sky are still suffused with a beautiful blue light. After sunset on August 21, this blue hour snapshot captured the nearly full Moon as it rose opposite the Sun, above the rugged Italian Alps from Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Sharing bluish hues with the sky, the rocky pyramid of Monte Antelao, also known as the King of the Dolomites, is the region's prominent alpine peak. The moonlight is yellow, but even so this full Moon was known to some as a seasonal Blue Moon. That's because by one definition the third full Moon of a season with four full moons in it is called a Blue Moon. Recognizing a season as the time between a solstice and an equinox, this season's fourth full Moon will be rising in the blue hour of September 20, just before September's equinox.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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