Article: Blue moon on the rise.

Byline: Clara Moskowitz

May 31--This moon isn't any bluer than usual, or any more impressive than your average full moon.

But whenever there is a second full moon in a month, as there will be today at 6:04 p.m., we call it a blue moon.

"There really is no scientific importance ascribed to a blue moon," said Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California-Santa Cruz. Most astronomers, he said, would probably be aware of a blue moon only if they read about it in a newspaper.

"It's really an artifact of our own calendar, and the fact that our months are fairly close to a lunar cycle," he said.

Because a full moon ...

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