{"id":14635,"date":"2025-08-21T20:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T20:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/14635\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T20:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T20:23:07","slug":"what-is-a-black-moon-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/14635\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a black moon? \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>A rare black moon event will happen Aug. 23.<\/li>\n<li>The new moon\/black moon phase is not visible from Earth.<\/li>\n<li>Slightly offset solar\/lunar calendars lead to events like black moons and blue moons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Once every lunar cycle the moon becomes invisible to Earth-bound viewers as the side we can see falls into a full shadow in a phase known as the new moon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">When the antithesis of the full moon occurs twice in a month, or is the third of four seasonal new moons, it earns the non-astronomical moniker of \u201cblack moon,\u201d a rare occurrence that will appear once again on Aug. 23.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">But \u201cappear\u201d needs to be taken with a grain of salt because this weekend\u2019s black moon, as with all new moons, will pass unseen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/moon\/moon-phases\/#hds-sidebar-nav-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/moon\/moon-phases\/#hds-sidebar-nav-3\">NASA explains<\/a> that in this phase, the moon is in the same part of the sky as the sun and rises and sets with the sun. Not only is the illuminated side facing away from the Earth, it\u2019s also up during the day. In this phase, the moon doesn\u2019t usually pass directly between Earth and the sun, due to the inclination of the moon\u2019s orbit. Of course, those rare instances when it does are known as solar eclipses.<\/p>\n<p>A quirk of conflicting calendars?<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In an <a href=\"https:\/\/news.northeastern.edu\/2025\/08\/20\/black-moon-event-august-23-explained\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/news.northeastern.edu\/2025\/08\/20\/black-moon-event-august-23-explained\/\">interview<\/a> published earlier this week, Northeastern University astrophysicist Jonathan Blazek noted the slight difference between the Gregorian and lunar calendars is at the heart of \u201crare\u201d lunar events like the black moon, blue moon and others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cBecause a month and the lunar cycle are similar in length, we typically have one full moon and one new moon each month,\u201d Blazek said. \u201cSimilarly, since the seasons are each one quarter of the year (about three months), we typically have three full moons and three new moons in each season. However, because the lunar cycle (29.5 days) is slightly shorter than a month, we can sometimes get an extra full or new moon. There is nothing different about these full moons or new moons \u2014 it is simply a quirk of using a non-lunar calendar cycle.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">That quirk occurs about once every 33 months or so and is similar to the occurrence of blue moons \u2014 two full moons in a single month \u2014 which happen about once every two or three years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Although you won\u2019t be able to see the black moon with the naked eye, its timing offers a special opportunity for stargazers: a moonless night perfect for enjoying the summer stars just as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/space\/the-best-time-to-see-the-milky-way-is-fast-approaching-how-to-see-our-galaxy-at-its-best-in-june\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Milky Way is looking its best<\/a> from the Northern Hemisphere, according to a report from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/space\/the-moon\/a-rare-black-moon-rises-this-weekend-what-is-it-and-what-can-you-see\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/space\/the-moon\/a-rare-black-moon-rises-this-weekend-what-is-it-and-what-can-you-see\">Live Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The best way to get a good look at the arc of our galaxy overhead is to find a location away from light pollution, preferably somewhere with no cities on the southern horizon. Find the three bright stars of the vast <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/space\/astronomy\/three-bright-stars-mark-the-beginning-of-summer-heres-how-to-spot-the-summer-triangle-this-week\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Summer Triangle<\/a> in the southeast \u2014 Vega, Deneb and Altair. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/tag\/milky-way\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Milky Way<\/a> will be streaming through the left side of the Summer Triangle, roughly from Deneb down to Altair and, from there, down to the southern horizon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Weekend stargazers may also catch the tail end of summer\u2019s best meteor show, the Perseids, which wraps up its active phase Aug. 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rare black moon event will happen Aug. 23. The new moon\/black moon phase is not visible from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[18,19,17,2273,133,451],"class_list":{"0":"post-14635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news-feed-national","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}