Did you know Blue Moons aren't actually blue? But they -- as the popular idiom suggests -- rare occurrences.
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The second full moon of the month will occur on Friday, Aug. 31, a phenomenon which only happens seven times every 19 years or roughly once every two and a half years.
It takes the moon 27.3 days to complete its full orbit around the Earth. In order for two full moons to land during the same calendar month, one must be at the very beginning and the other at the very end.
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How will you celebrate Friday's Blue Moon? Let us know how you'll mark the last Blue Moon until 2015.
BONUS: 48 Years of Inspiring Moon Photography
1964: First Image of the Moon, Taken by a U.S. Spacecraft
Ranger 7 took this image on July 31, 1964 at 9:09 a.m. EDT, about 17 minutes before impacting the lunar surface. Ranger 7 was the first U.S. spacecraft to successfully transmit images of the lunar surface back to Earth.
Click here to view this gallery.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DougLemke
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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