Expert: Steven LJ Russo - 12/30/2009

Question
Hello,  my son told me that there is a blue moon this New Years Eve.  He also mentioned that parts of the world (unfortunately not North America) will be blessed with a Eclipse as well.  He asked me how rare this is.  
I wasn't able to find good enough information to ease his curious mind.  So if you could please tell me ( or direct me to a accurate site)....
How many times a Blue moon has accrued on New Years?
How many times there has been a Blue Moon Eclipse?
How many times there has been a Blue Moon eclipse on New Years?  
And the last question....
When will these phenomenons happen again.  
I hope I didn't ask to many questions.  I just want to give him the right answers instead of just guessing the sites we look at are right.  We ran into a lot of different answers. Thank you

Answer
Below is a press release I put out from my planetarium.


Contrary to popular belief, the second Full Moon of a month is NOT called a Blue Moon.  I know, the media continues to call it that; the same media that gives us misinformation about Global Warming, Swine Flu and everything else.  There is NO Astronomical term for the second Full Moon in a month.



Due to an editing mistake in the 1940’s by a popular Astronomy magazine, the name Blue Moon stuck, in error.



Even going back to the time of Shakespeare, the term Blue Moon just meant a rare event.  It had nothing to do with the actual Moon itself.



Now the Moon can sometimes appear to change color during a Lunar Eclipse. This is due to dust, dirt, and moisture in the Earth’s atmosphere.  Sometimes the colors can be orange, red, gold, yellow, and even a bluish-gray.



Now two Full Moons in one month will occur every 2.5 years, on average. A Blue Moon falling precisely on Dec. 31st, however, is much more unusual. The last time it happened was in 1990, and the next time won't be until 2028.



What might make this one even more interesting is that on THIS second Full Moon, there is also a Lunar Eclipse, unfortunately, not visible from the United States.  This is somewhat of a rarity, as the next Dec 31st Lunar Eclipse will be in 2028.  And when did we had a New Years Eve Lunar Eclipse last?  I checked the records back to 1801, and couldn’t find any!



So at any rate, enjoy a New Years Eve Full moon, but remember, regardless of what you hear, it is NOT a Blue Moon.