'Blue moon' on same day as Neil Armstrong service

'Blue moon' on same day as Neil Armstrong service

Credit: AFP/Getty Images

SPACE, IN SPACE - JULY 20: US astronaut Edwin Aldrin stands on the moon 16 July 1969 beside the deployed flag of the United States during the Apollo 11 mission. The astronaut's footprints in the soil of the moon are clearly visible in the foreground. US astronaut Neil Armstrong used a 70mm lunar surface camera in taking this picture. (Photo credit should read DSK/AFP/Getty Images)

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by Associated Press

kens5.com

Posted on August 30, 2012 at 7:38 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There's a rare `blue moon' on Friday, a fitting wink to Neil Armstrong by the cosmic calendar.

That's the day of a private service for Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, who died last Saturday in Ohio at age 82.

A blue moon occurs when there's a second full moon in one calendar month. It won't happen again until July 2015. The full moon cycle is 29.5 days so a blue moon is uncommon and has come to mean something rare. The moon actually won't be colored blue.

Harvard University astronomer Avi Loeb said the moon is far more important to lovers, literature and folklore than to science.

Armstrong's family has suggested paying tribute to him by looking at the moon and giving the astronaut a wink.

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