Orange Blue Moon!

The Full Moon rises in the last hours of 2009 above winter landscape of Kansas. It was the the second Full Moon of December 2009 and fits the modern definition of a Blue Moon – the second Full Moon in a month. Blue Moon does not refer to the moon color. Because the lunar cycle, Full Moon to Full Moon, spans 29.5 days, Blue Moons tend to occur in some month about every 2.5 years. As noted by the photographer “This was, hands down, the most spectacular moonrise I have ever seen–an orange Blue moon!” Orange moons which could be regularly seen are caused by Earth’s atmosphere acting as a dirty lens, distorting and reddening the Moon when its very close to the horizon.