An Astronomical Eloping: How Rare Is A “Friday The 13Th Honey Moon?”

[Spartan]

 

Ah, Friday the 13^th. Whether you fear it or it’s just your favorite slasher flick, it’s coming right around the bend later this week. And while it’s pretty much a non-event as far as astronomy is concerned, there’s bound to be some woo in the works, because the June Full Moon — dubbed the “Honey Moon” — falls on the same date.

 

Well, sort of. We made mention of this month’s Full Moon falling on Friday the 13^th in last week’s post on the occultation of Saturn by Earth’s Moon. We’re not out to alarm any triskaidekaphobics, but we always love the chance to have some fun with calendars in the name of astronomy.

What we’re seeing here is merely the intersection of three cycles of events… and nothing more. These sorts of things can be fun to calculate and can provide a teachable moment, even when that well meaning but often misinformed relative/coworker/stranger on Twitter sends it your way . Hey, some people golf or collect steel pennies, this is our shtick.

 

A “Friday the 13^th Honey Moon” is basically the subset of: 1. Fridays that fall on the 13^th day of the month (OK, that’s two input perimeters, we know) that also 2. Fall in the month of June, and 3. Occur on a Full Moon.

 

Friday the 13^th occurs from one to three times a calendar year, so you can already see that one will occasionally happen to land on a Full Moon date fairly frequently… but how ‘bout in June? To this end, we compiled this handy listing of “Full Moons that fall on the 13th day of the month” — 15 in all — that occur from 1990 to 2030:

 

[ManOnFire]