Hello Stan, I find it amusing that the term "Blue Moon" causes so much concern. I don't know who has the final say on what it means. I do know it is an indication of something rare. The idea that it's two full moons in a given month is certainly easy to understand. Other meanings are more complex and I fail to see the value of arguing over it. I'm happy with just thinking of it as two full moons in a given month. As for the contrails I suspect it was just that the atmospheric condition were right to produce them. I have seen that happen over Phoenix too. Jeff At 08:32 -0700 05/31/2007, Stan Gorodenski wrote: >I listened to NPR yesterday afternoon. They interviewed Kelly Beatty, >executive editor of S&T, about the use of the term blue moon when a full >moon occurs twice in a month. He said that term was in error and it was >an error they started in an article in 1947. An amateur had done some >research on the use of the term blue moon but was not that thorough. The >term Blue Moon generally means a rare event, but it does not mean two >full moons in a month. > >As an aside, gad were there a lot of jet trails over my place last >night. Does anyone know if there was something going on or were the >atmospheric conditions just right? >Stan -- Jeff Hopkins HPO SOFT Counting Photons http://www.hposoft.com/Astro/astro.html Hopkins Phoenix Observatory 7812 West Clayton Drive Phoenix, Arizona 85033-2439 U.S.A. (623)849-5889 (623) 247-1190 (Fax) www.hposoft.com -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.