When a giant,
full blue moon rises, it's bound to capture the imaginations of sky watchers the world over. What does it really mean, though?
According to the now-defunct Maine Farmers' Almanac, each season has three full moons, but when a fourth appears, it's considered a blue moon. Due to an error in the March 1946 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, however, people commonly interpret a blue moon to mean the arrival of a full moon in a month that already had one. Regardless of rival definitions, a blue moon only occurs once every two to three years and is a spectacular sight to witness. We've collected some mesmerizing images of the August 2013 blue moon snapped by moonstruck photographers around the globe.
Mauricio Hernandez, located in the super-dry Atacama Desert in South America, grabbed this sensationally sharp image of the blue moon.