Starship Asterisk*

A Blue Hour Full Moon

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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That's a stunningly beautiful APOD! The colors are amazing!


The yellow glow of the Moon is so intense, yet so marvelously soft. That's what being illuminated by sunset-yellow light from the Sun passing through the atmosphere of the Earth does for a gray body like the Moon, I suppose!

And all the rest of the landscape and skyscape is so, so, so... blue! Well, not absolutely all of it. Do note the pink-rimmed clouds hanging over the Moon and over the top of Monte Antelao like rose-colored halos slightly askew!


A person who was very famous for his portrait of the "blue hour" was the Danish painter P S Krøyer. But I think that Giorgia Hofer's blue hour is more stunning than Krøyer's. He just had to dilute his blue hues with shades of green and brown to prevent them from being seen in all their uncensored azure glory.

Ann

Is today's APOD also a Blue Moon? I kinda felt like it was!

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 1:48 pm luna_antelao_Hofer.jpg
Is today's APOD also a Blue Moon? I kinda felt like it was!

I believe so. The 3rd blue moon of the season happened at 12:02 UTC on August 22. Now if Italy is 1 hour or 2 ahead of UTC and the photo was taken on Aug. 21 after sunset in Italy, then it is within 12 hours before the blue moon. I'd leave it to a better expert who knows what time the sunset is in Italy.

De58te wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 2:09 pm

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 1:48 pm luna_antelao_Hofer.jpg
Is today's APOD also a Blue Moon? I kinda felt like it was!

I believe so. The 3rd blue moon of the season happened at 12:02 UTC on August 22. Now if Italy is 1 hour or 2 ahead of UTC and the photo was taken on Aug. 21 after sunset in Italy, then it is within 12 hours before the blue moon. I'd leave it to a better expert who knows what time the sunset is in Italy.

The picture was taken at 8:48pm Italy (CST) = 18:48 UTC, Aug 21 (roughly 40 min after sunset). The seasonal blue moon occurred ~17 hours later.