Full Month

When the blue moon rises Sunday night, astronomer Hal Jandorf will take the night off from stargazing. Instead, the Moorpark College astronomy teacher plans to spend the evening in front of the television.

“There’s a problem with the full moon. It’s so bright and it’s up all night, all you can see is the moon,” Jandorf said. “No wonder I’m blue, all I can see is the darn moon.”

Luckily for Jandorf and other local star lovers, two full moons in one month--referred to as a blue moon--only happens once in a. . . . Well, you know.

When it comes to blue moons, there is little scientific significance, but plenty of cultural curiosity.

“It’s more one of those aesthetic things rather than really scientific,” said Ron Wallingford, who also teaches astronomy at Moorpark College.

At Meditation Mount in Ojai, members believe the full moon is a time of great import, when there is more energy in the universe, according to Glenda Christian, a staff member of the nonprofit organization.

“We are invoking higher design energy into the planetary sphere,” she said.

Members consider this to be a good thing, since they gather for every full moon to meditate in a large group. Other organizations around the world have mass meditation sessions when the moon is full.

“It’s a very good time to meditate simultaneously because of the power of group thought,” Christian said.

Spiritual types aren’t alone in believing the full moon is significant. Police officers have their own suspicions. Ask anyone in law enforcement and they’ll tell you--the full moon seems to bring out the worst in everybody.

“It seems that we receive more unusual incidents from more unusual people, and it definitely seems to be busier during the full moons,” said Danita Crombach, communications manager for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

Likewise, work seems to get busier in the baby-birthing business when the moon is full, said Terry Cole, an obstetrician and gynecologist at St. John’s Regional Medical Center and Community Memorial Hospital in Camarillo.

“I don’t know that for a fact,” Cole said. “I can tell you that as a practitioner, when I see a full moon . . . I know I’m going to get a lot of calls that night.”

While more babies seem to arrive during full moons, squid tend to stay away. Full moons leave the sky too bright and the currents stronger, which keeps squid at the ocean floor, said fisherman Neil Guglielmo of Oxnard. “The full moon is a deterrent,” he said.

*

And while it’s a deterrent to serious stargazers, some members of the Ventura County Astronomical Society find the blue moon a rare enough event to be fascinated by it nonetheless.

“It’s something unusual,” Linda Lippman, the society’s secretary, said.

Unusual indeed. Blue moons only occur an average of once every 2.7 years. The last one rose on June 30, 1996, but the next one will arrive in only two months--on March 31.

Two blue moons occurring in one year is a notable event. The last time that occurred was 1961.

Folklore behind the blue moon is varied and contorted and has almost nothing to do with the color. The popular expression “once in a blue moon” dates back to the 16th century.

Calling the second full moon in one month a blue moon is believed to be the invention of an unknown almanac author more than a century ago. That definition, however, was not popularized until the late 1980s, according to scientists at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

The moon, in fact, does sometimes turn blue when extreme weather conditions distort the color of the sky. For instance, when a volcano in Indonesia exploded in 1883, its dust turned sunsets to green and the moon appeared blue worldwide for about two years, according to an article on blue moons by Newfoundland folklorist Philip Hiscock.

Pop culturists tend to associate blue moons with romance, but studious astronomers aren’t sold on that.

“I don’t know if people are more romantic,” Wallingford said. “I haven’t polled any recent dates.”

*

Scientific studies of the moon are only a small part of the astronomy class offered six days a week at Moorpark College. Students learn how to use telescopes, star maps and locate galaxies.

“We don’t want to make it interesting,” Jandorf said. “We want to make it thrilling.”

And with a waiting list as long as the class list, Moorpark students seem to be discovering the magic of the sky.

Opened in 1987, the Charles Temple Observatory maintains 30 telescopes, including one with more power than any at the Griffith Observatory. And because the light pollution is minimal in east Ventura County, Moorpark sky-watching is among the best.

“We actually see the Milky Way from our observatory,” Jandorf said. “You can’t see it from Los Angeles and you can’t see it from the Valley.”

While Jandorf doesn’t care much for full moons, especially two in one month, he still keeps watch for them when looking for galaxies, constellations and nebulae.

“If we had two new moons, we’d have to call it something different,” Jandorf said. “A happy moon or something like that.”