Blue moon

This photo was taken just after midnight so is actually on August 1st  although the Blue Moon date was yesterday. Usually the Blue Moon is regarded as the second full moon in a calendar month although a real blue moon can occur when there are huge volcanic eruptions or fires polluting the atmosphere. This year, July’s first full moon was on the 2nd and because there are 29.5 days between full moons (known as the lunar month), there was at full moon on 31st.  Clouds kept obscuring the moon and an aeroplane appeared but as it’s a handheld small camera the image is not very clear.
The next Blue Moon will not be until January 2018, hence ‘once in a blue moon’ meaning rarely.
The extra photo was taken almost nine hours later with dozens of contrails indicating air traffic mainly between Europe and USA. Fifteen minutes later the cloud had almost obscured the sky.