Saturday

Rare Blue Moon Rises Tonight: 5 Amazing Facts

October has not one, but two full moons -- and because it's 2020, the second one naturally falls on Halloween. “A full Moon on Halloween occurs roughly once every 19 years.” Next one is in 2039.

And if you spot what looks like a fiery red star near the full moon, that's Mars. The red planet made its closest approach to Earth earlier in October, and it's still shining bright in the night sky.

October's first full moon was the harvest moon on October 1, and the second is a rare full Halloween blue hunter's moon. While the moon won't actually look blue, the second full moon in one month is usually referred to as a blue moon. This happens every 2.5 to three years, or "once in a blue moon."

Previously, a blue moon was known as the third or fourth full moon in a single season. Typically, the next moon after the harvest moon is known as the hunter's moon -- when hunters used moonlight to hunt prey and prepare for winter. While a blue moon seems rare, a full moon on Halloween across time zones is even more rare -- an event that hasn't occurred since 1944.

However, a full moon occurs on Halloween every 19 years in some time zones, so you can expect a full Halloween moon again in 2039, 2058, 2077 and 2096.

The full Halloween moon will rise at 10:49 am ET on October 31, which explains why the moon will be visible across time zones. If you aren't able to see it due to bad weather or cloud cover in your area, the Virtual Telescope Project will share a live stream of the Halloween blue moon rising above Rome.

This is also the last day of Daylight Saving Time for many people around the world, so set your clocks back an hour on November 1 at 2 am. (The clocks already went back one hour across Europe on October 25 at 2 a.m.)


October Full Moon Names from different cultures Tugluvik (Inuit). Kentenha (Mohawk). Long Hair Moon (Hopi) Ten Colds Moon (Kiowa). Falling Leaves Moon (Arapaho). Corn Ripe Moon (Taos Native American). Hunter's Moon, Blood Moon (Neo-Pagan). Leaf Fall Moon (San Juan Native American). Blood Moon, Wine Moon (Mediaeval English). Blood Moon Falling :Full, Leaf Moon :Dark (Janic). Hunter's Moon, Travel Moon, Full Dying Grass Moon (Algonquin Native American/Colonia).

Other Moon names: Spirit Moon, Snow Moon, Shedding Moon, Winterfelleth (Winter Coming), Windermanoth (Vintage Month), Falling Leaf Moon, Moon of the Changing Season, White Frost moon

VIDEO Full Moon and Northern Lights Time-lapse in Churchill Manitoba

Friday

U.S. Government to end gray wolf protections across most of U.S.

Officials on Thursday stripped Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in most of the U.S., ending longstanding federal safeguards and putting states and tribes in charge of overseeing the predators.

It's the latest in a series of administration actions on the environment that appeal to key blocs of rural voters in the race’s final days, including steps to allow more mining in Minnesota and logging in Alaska.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz, who opposes recreational wolf hunting, called the decision disappointing and wildlife advocacy groups pledged to fight it in court.

Both feared and revered by people, gray wolves have recovered from near extinction in parts of the country but remain absent from much of their historical range.

Federal wildlife officials contend thriving populations in the western Great Lakes region, Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest ensure the species' long-term survival. They argue it’s not necessary for wolves to be in every place they once inhabited to be considered recovered.

In an announcement attended by several dozen people at a national wildlife refuge overlooking the Minnesota River in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt declared the gray wolf's recovery “a milestone of success."

“In the early part of the 20th century the gray wolf had essentially become a ghost throughout the United States," Bernhardt said. “That is not the case today."

Former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe agreed that wolves were recovered and said it's time for the agency to “move on" to help other imperiled wildlife. But he questioned the announcement coming so close to the election.

“It creates the perception that it's being done for political reasons," Ashe said in an interview.

Some biologists and former government officials who previously reviewed the administration’s proposal for lifting protections said it lacked scientific justification. And wildlife advocates worry the move will make it harder, if not impossible, for wolves to recover in more regions, such as the southern Rocky Mountains and portions of the Northeast.

Their numbers also are sure to drop in the western Great Lakes area, as happened previously when federal controls were lifted, said Adrian Treves, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin. Hunting seasons took their toll and research showed that poachers were emboldened by the absence of federal enforcement, he said.

Agency scientists believe wolves can continue expanding even without the federal listing, although support from states is considered crucial.

Farmers and hunters welcomed the news.

Ashleigh Calaway of Pittsville, Wisconsin said 13 of her family farm's sheep were killed by wolves in July of 2019. Reducing wolf numbers through state-sponsored hunts would help prevent such attacks, she said.
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Thursday

Full Spirit Moon 2020: What You Need to Know About October's Full Moon

The full harvest moon provides light for farmers harvesting their crops into the night, according to the Farmer's Almanac. The moon will appear full for about three days, according to NASA.

As the full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox (the end of summer and start of fall), this is the Harvest Moon. During the harvest season farmers sometimes need to work late into the night by the light of the Moon. The full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the northern USA, and only 10 to 20 minutes later farther north in Canada and Europe. The Harvest Moon is an old European name with the Oxford English Dictionary giving 1706 as the year of its first published use. Most years the Harvest Moon falls in September but this is one of the years it falls in October.

This full Moon corresponds with the first of the two Japanese Tsukimi or "Moon-Viewing" festivals. This festival includes the tradition of offering sweet potatoes so this full Moon is sometimes called Imomeigetsu (which translates as "potato harvest Moon"). The Japanese full Moon festivities have become so popular that they extend for several days after the full Moon.

This full Moon occurs around the end of the seasonal monsoon rains in the Indian Subcontinent. For Buddhists, this full Moon is Pavarana, the end of Vassa, the three-month period of fasting for Buddhist monks tied to the monsoons (Vassa is sometimes given the English names "Rains Retreat" or "Buddhist Lent"). In Laos this full Moon corresponds with Boun Suang Huea or the Boat Racing Festival (which will occur on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020). In Sri Lanka, this is Vap Poya, which is followed by the Kathina festival, during which people give gifts to the monks, particularly new robes (so this lunar month is sometimes called the Month of Robes).

In the Hebrew calendar, this full Moon falls near the start of the Sukkoth holiday, a 7-day holiday tied to the 15th day of the lunar month of Tishrei (the 15th day of a lunar month is close to if not the same as the day of the full Moon). Sukkoth is also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of the Ingathering. Sukkoth ties back to both the sheltering of the people of Israel during the 40 years in the wilderness in the Book of Leviticus and a harvest festival in the Book of Exodus. Often for this holiday a temporary hut symbolic of a wilderness shelter is built, and the family eats, sleeps, and spends time in this shelter. This year Sukkoth starts at sunset on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020.

The Ojibwa people called this month's full moon the "Mskawji Giizis," or Freezing Moon, as October typically marks the first frost, and the Cree people called it "Pimahamowipisim," or Migrating Moon, because of bird migrations, according to Space.com, Live Science's sister site. In the Southern Hemisphere, the days are getting warmer and longer, and as such, some common names for this October moon include Waking Moon, Pink Moon, Seed Moon, Fish Moon and Egg Moon.

The names don't end there, but they all seem to hint at the same idea: Seasons are changing. Phases of the moon are dictated by the amount of sunlight that's reflected off the moon as the moon revolves around our planet. A full-moon phase is as close as the moon can get to being fully lit up by the sun. It occurs when the moon is 180 degrees from the sun, when the moon, the sun and Earth form a line, according to Space.com.

October Full Moon Names from different cultures Tugluvik (Inuit). Kentenha (Mohawk). Long Hair Moon (Hopi) Ten Colds Moon (Kiowa). Falling Leaves Moon (Arapaho). Corn Ripe Moon (Taos Native American). Hunter's Moon, Blood Moon (Neo-Pagan). Leaf Fall Moon (San Juan Native American). Blood Moon, Wine Moon (Mediaeval English). Blood Moon Falling :Full, Leaf Moon :Dark (Janic). Hunter's Moon, Travel Moon, Full Dying Grass Moon (Algonquin Native American/Colonia).

Other Moon names: Spirit Moon, Snow Moon, Shedding Moon, Winterfelleth (Winter Coming), Windermanoth (Vintage Month), Falling Leaf Moon, Moon of the Changing Season, White Frost moon

VIDEO Stunning 'Harvest Moon' Captured in Timelapse Over Lake Superior

National Geographic Releases Rare Images of Leucistic Coyote

A strain of white coyote believed to be found only on the (Exact location not divulged) has caught the attention of National Geographic.

Science researcher Carl Zimmer has written an article on the white coyotes in the current issue of the magazine.

Zimmer said he became interested in writing about the white coyote after he stumbled across a research paper in the January 2013 edition of the journal Mammalian Genome written by researchers at Memorial University and wildlife officials at Newfoundland and Labrador's Department of Environment and Conservation.

Zimmer said the scientific paper described the DNA of six white coyotes — turned in by hunters to wildlife officials — and an interesting theory on the origin of the genetic mutation.

"This raises, I think, a very plausible possibility that the coyotes in Newfoundland got this gene from a golden retriever," said Zimmer.

Zimmer pointed out that there were reports in (Exact location not divulged) that a coyote had run off with a golden retriever.

"It's possible that that golden retriever produced hybrids that passed down its gene into the coyote population." Coyote populations change quickly

Zimmer said coyote populations change and expand quickly, and gene mutations happen rapidly.

"What makes coyotes so interesting is that they're not really an incredibly distinct species," said Zimmer. "They do interbreed with dogs, they interbreed with wolves as well." Zimmer noted that coyotes in eastern North America are larger than those in western North America, which could be evidence that coyotes breed both with dogs and wolves.

The writer, who lives in New England, said there are lots of coyotes in his area, but he's never seen any like the ones found in Newfoundland.

"I've never seen any reports of white coyotes before," said Zimmer.

"These aren't albinos, these are white coyotes in the sense that polar bears are white. For now, this is unique to (Exact location not divulged)."

VIDEO White Coyote Captured On Trail Camera

France to ban use of wild animals in circuses and marine parks

Mink farming will also be outlawed the French environment minister announced

France's environment minister has announced a gradual ban on using wild animals in traveling circuses, on keeping dolphins and killer whales in captivity in marine parks and on raising mink on fur farms.

Barbara Pompili, France's minister of ecological transition, said in a news conference Tuesday that bears, tigers, lions, elephants and other wild animals won't be allowed any more in travelling circuses "in the coming years. " In addition, starting immediately, France's three marine parks won't be able to bring in nor breed dolphins and killer whales any more, she said.

 "It is time to open a new era in our relationship with these (wild) animals," she said, arguing that animal welfare is a priority. Ms Pompili said the measures will also bring an end to mink farming, where animals are raised for their fur, within the next five years.

The ban does not apply to wild animals in other permanent shows and in zoos. Ms Pompili did not set any precise date for the ban in travelling circuses, saying the process should start "as soon as possible." She promised solutions will be found for each animal "on a case-by-case basis.

" The French government will implement an 8 million-euro ($9.2 million) package to help people working in circuses and marine parks find other jobs. "That transition will be spread over several years, because it will change the lives of many people," she said.
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