The September 30 Black Moon Explained

PUBLISHED September 28, 2016

Humans have long had a fascination with lunar eventsand with the rise of the Internet, all kinds of moon
moments have become media sensations. Consider super moons, harvest moons, and the rare super blood
moon total eclipse.
On September 30, sky-watchers in the Western Hemisphere may be tempted to add another lunar moniker to
the list: a black moon, popularly defined as the second new moon in a month. However, its not exactly
going to make for good sky-watching.
New moons occur when the moons orbit takes it between Earth and the sun, leaving the lunar orbs
unilluminated side facing Earth. At night, this phase of the moon is impossible to see: Since new moons are
in the same part of the sky as the sun, they rise and set with the sun and are overwhelmed by its glare.
New moons can be readily seen only when they pass directly in front of the sun, causing solar eclipses.
Otherwise, sky-watchers must look to the days before or after a new moon, when just a sliver of the moons
sunlit side is visible from Earth.
Moon 101 From the moment Neil Armstrong took his "one small step" in 1969, humans have been
mesmerized by the moon. Get a crash course on lunar science.
Usually, new moons occur only once a month, but because theres a slight disjunct between the moons
phasesa 29.5-day cycle, on averageand the Gregorian calendar, some months can have two new moons:
one at the beginning and one at the end. Joe Rao of Space.com notes that this double-dipping occurs once
every 32 months or so.
In this sense, a black moon is like the evil twin of a blue moon, conventionally understood as the second full
moon in a month. But lets be clear: This new moonlike any astronomical eventdoesnt bring ill tidings
or herald the end of days, despite the astrological fear-mongering that has been seeping through the web.
If anything, this black moon is a harbinger of new beginnings and festivities: On the evening of October 2,
the barely visible waxing crescent moon will shine on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. And on
October 3, the growing crescent will mark the beginning of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic lunar
calendar.
The September 30 new moon wont even be a true black moon for the majority of humankind. In the Eastern
Hemisphere, the upcoming new moon starts after midnight on October 1, putting it in the wrong month to fit
the popular definition. (In London, for instance, the moon reaches its new phase at 1:11 a.m. local time,
meaning that the United Kingdom wont experience a black moon at all in the coming days, much less the
apocalypse.)
As Rao points out, the Eastern Hemisphere will instead get a black moon at the end of the month, with a
second new moon arriving on October 30. And for people living in East Asia, Japan, New Zealand, and
Australia, the black moon will come on the perfect spooky date: October 31, or Halloween.

Famous Frog Toughie Dies, Sending Species to Extinction

The tree frog's loss warns of other extinctions, says the photographer who featured the animal in his Photo
Ark project.

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Picture of Toughie, the last Rabbs' tree frog

View Images

Toughie, the last known Rabbs' fringe-limbed tree frog, has passed away.
Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic Photo Ark
Atlanta Botanical Garden
By Brian Handwerk

PUBLISHED September 30, 2016

And then there were none.

Toughie, the world's last Rabbs' fringe-limbed tree frog and a symbol of the extinction crisis, has died
at his home in the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

The famed frog's age is unknown, but he's at least 12 years old, and likely older, because he was an
adult when collected in 2005.

Mark Mandica, who worked with Toughie for seven years, says the frog's story isn't entirely unique.
A lot of attention had been paid to him in captivity, so he even has his own Wikipedia page,
Mandica, head of the Amphibian Foundation, notes. But there are plenty of other species out there
that are disappearing, sometimes before we even knew that they were there.

In fact, Toughie's own species (Ecnomiohyla rabborum) wasn't described until 2008, a few years after
Toughie was found during a 2005 frog rescue mission by the Atlanta Botanical Garden and Zoo
Atlanta. He was one of many frogs scientists raced to collect as the deadly chytrid fungus closed in on
central Panama.

It was likened to just rescuing things from a burning house, Mandica says.

The species occurred in a very small range, at an elevation where the fungus proved especially deadly.
Field studies suggest up to 85 percent of all the amphibians on Toughie's home turf were wiped out.
It's unlikely that any of his kind survived in the wild, where they were incredible climbers and also
graceful gliderstoe webbing allowed them to soar from one tree to the next. (Learn about the
increasing pace of extinctions.)

Watch: This tree frog's death marks the end for a species.

Naming a Survivor

Mandica's son, then a two-year-old, dubbed the last survivor Toughie. Naming animals isn't the norm
among scientists, but the frog's popularity as the last of his kind meant that people (and the press)
kept demanding a nameand Toughie stuck.

Although he gave voice to the plight of endangered species, Toughie was silent for all the years he lived
at the botanical garden, until one fateful morning in 2014 when Mandica captured the only existing
example of the Rabbs' fringe-limbed tree frog's call.

I heard this weird call coming out of the frog [area], and I knew it had to be him, because I knew
what all the other species sounded like. I was able to sneak in and record him on my phone. (Hear
Toughie's call.)
Picture of Toughie, the last Rabbs' fringe limbed tree frog
View Images

Toughie was photographed in his captive home at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Goegraphic Photo Ark
Atlanta Botanical Garden

Photographing the Last of a Kind

Photographer Joel Sartore recalls a curious, baseball-size creature with amazing eyes that actually hopped up
onto his camera while being photographed for the Photo Ark project. Photo Ark aims to showcase our
planet's incredible biodiversity and inspire people to help fight the extinction crisis while there is still time.
So far, Sartore has photographed more than 6,000 species. Unfortunately, many others also represent the end
of the line for their kind.

About once a year I photograph something that's the last of its kind or close to it, he says. I get sad and
angry because I can't imagine that this won't wake the world up and get people to care about extinction. I
keep thinking, OK, this is the one. This animal's story is going to do it and get people to care more about
extinction than about what's on TV.

They can't care if they don't know these animals, he adds. They have to meet them and fall in love with
them the way that I have and so many others have.

Watch: Scientists rush to save other tree frogs in Central America.

Toughie, indeed, had lots of admirers. Last year his image was even projected onto St. Peter's Basilica, and
his call played, so that the world could see and hear him.

The frog met race car drivers and movie directors, Sartore recalls. A lot of people were moved to tears
when they saw him. When you have the very last of something it's a special deal.

Now he's gone, and with him an entire species. And as large numbers of animals and plants continue to
vanish, their loss increasingly compromises the healthy ecosystems necessary for everyone's survival
including our own. (Can extinct species ever be brought back?)

We're on track to lose half of all species by the end of the century, Sartore says. And it's folly to think that
we can lose half of everything else but that people will be just fine. It's not going to work that way. As these
species go, so do we.
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