A month with No Full Moon

After and exciting full moon on Jan 31st, when The Moon was full, Closest to Earth and also eclipsed, February will not have any full moon. Yes, the month of February this year will not see a complete 100% illuminated Moon.

Let us try to understand this. The Moon has a period of 29.53 days (synodic) for rotation and it takes the same time for revolution around The Earth. So a full moon to full moon takes about 29 days and few hours. The second full moon of January that occurred a little before midnight gave ample time for next full moon to occur on March 2. This leaves February with no full moon.

This is a periodic event and occurs about every 20 years. It means every 20 years, February misses a full moon. This bring to the point that every 20 years, January and March may have 2 full moon each or blue moon twice that year. The last time it happen in 1998.

This occurrence would have been sooner if we did not have leap years in between with 1 more day added every 4 years in the cycle.

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