Once in a Blue Moon

A blue moon will grace the night sky Friday night, giving skywatchers their last chance to observe this celestial phenomenon for nearly three years. 

The moon will wax to its full phase at 9:58 a.m. EDT Friday, bringing August's full moon count to two (the first one occurred Aug. 1). Two full moons won't rise in a single month again until July 2015.

But don't expect tonight's full moon to actually appear blue, unless you're peering through a thick haze of volcanic ash or forest fire smoke. "Blue moon" is not a reference to the satellite's observed color.

The term has long been used to describe rare or absurd happenings. And farmers once employed it to denote the third full moon in a season — spring, summer, autumn or winter — that has four full moons instead of the usual three.

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Star Gaze Southern Appalachian National Parks In September

You’ll get startlingly close to galaxies, nebulae, planets and more at three great September star-gazing events at the loftiest viewing locations in Eastern America, thanks to Southern Appalachian National Parks.

Between events at Purchase Knob in the Smokies, near Craggy Dome on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and atop Mount Mitchell State Park (reached via the Parkway), there are awesome early autumn opportunities to see, and learn, about the skyscape above the East’s highest mountains.

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Discovery of Lost Silent Film With All-Indian Cast

Indian Country Today

Media Network.com

Discovery of Long-Lost Silent Film With All-Indian Cast Has Historians Reeling

How a silent film featuring an all-Native cast came to be made, lost (seemingly forever), discovered nearly a century later (in shambles), then restored and shown to the cast’s descendants is one of the most fascinating stories in the annals of American filmmaking.  The Daughter of Dawn, which had its world premiere in June at the deadCenter Film Festival in Oklahoma City, may be the only all-Native cast silent film ever made.

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Nothing directly to do with Melungeons, of course, but with Melungeon Indian ancestry now being blithely dismissed, the day may come when it must be rediscovered after being seemingly lost forever.