There’s a Black Moon on the rise, but if that phrase conjures a similar Creedence Clearwater Revival lyric in your head, relax: This one isn’t bound to take your life.
A so-called Black Moon isn’t an astronomical term, but it is a mysterious nickname that, confusingly, could refer to a couple different lunar scenarios.
The buzz right now centers on an event (or non-event, depending on how you think of it) happening Aug. 23. When an astronomical season, which is about three months long, includes four “new moons” rather than three, the third one is sometimes called a Black Moon. This happens about once every 33 months.
Before you reach into the back of your closet to dust off a telescope or binoculars, know that there’s really nothing to see here: The moon will seem to vanish into the night. The true benefit of a Black Moon is perhaps the accessibility of everything else in space you might have been missing.
“Being able to see the Milky Way is your best bet,” said Jeff Rich, an astronomy outreach coordinator for Carnegie Science. “When the moon is up, it’s causing light pollution in the same way that we cause light pollution (in urban areas). So it just makes it harder to see things that are faint.”
Here’s what to know about the Black Moon.
Professional astronomers love new moon phases because they allow darker sky conditions for viewing faint celestial objects.
Credit: by-studio / iStock / Getty Images Plus
As a reminder, when it comes to lunar phases, a new moon is the opposite of a full moon. It’s when the far side of the moon — the side that doesn’t face Earth — is lit by the sun, making it completely dark from our vantage point.
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“Sometimes the entire face of the moon glows brightly,” according to NASA. “Other times we see only a thin crescent of light. Sometimes the moon seems to disappear.”
The sequence unfolds in this order: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent. Each cycle lasts about 29.5 days.
Just like Earth, the moon has a day side and a night side, which changes as the moon spins. How much of the moon’s face people are able to see changes as it travels through its orbit. The new moon is also positioned near the sun in the sky, so it rises and sets with the sun, and therefore, is not visible at night.
Each astronomical season usually has three of these new moons, but occasionally, because the moon’s cycle doesn’t align with the calendar, an additional new moon gets wedged in.
How this extra new moon earned a special moniker, or when it originated, isn’t clear. To make matters more confusing, this isn’t the only lunar event that carries the nickname Black Moon. Sometimes when a calendar month has two new moons, the second of the two is dubbed Black Moon, similar to how people call the second full moon in a month a Blue Moon. This type of Black Moon event happens slightly more often than the season Black Moon, about once every 29 months.
Given that Black Moons are invisible lunar events, you might be wondering why people are talking about it. Go ask the internet.
In the meantime, you might want to take advantage of this new moon to get one of the best stargazing opportunities nature has to offer. Some celestial objects that are usually rather fuzzy or dim — meteors, galaxies, and nebulas — may suddenly pop into focus. If you’re not sure where the best lookout points are in your area, Rich recommends contacting your local astronomy club, which will likely have a wealth of information, including what telescopes and other gear to get.
“For astronomers, new moons are great for being able to see faint stuff,” he said. “That’s the best time to look at the night sky.”
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