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A new moon arrives on Saturday, August 23, and it’s got an eyebrow-raising name—black moon. More specifically, it’s the Black Corn Moon since it kicks off the lunar cycle for the full moon that falls in September. It is corn harvest time after all, and traditional moon names tend to nod to the season.

As for the term black moon, it has nothing to do with the color (unlike a blood moon, which refers to the moon’s reddish hue during a total lunar eclipse ). In fact, since no moonlight reflects back to Earth during a new moon, a black moon is invisible. Instead, a black moon is the new moon equivalent to a full blue moon, which refers to a second full moon within a month or a third full moon in a season with four full moons versus three.

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