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This is one of many not-so-important fringe articles, but okay. However, this is inconsistent:

"When February is without full moon, then the preceding January and the following March have two full moons."

"When February is without new moon, then the preceding January or December and the following March or April have two new moons."

Either the first or the second is true. I can't see how both could possibly be correct. The time from one new moon to next new moon must on average equal the time from one full moon to the next full moon, mustn't it? Fomalhaut76 (talk) 08:38, 19 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The claims are cited so you have no choice really but to verify the citations. Perhaps that will clear up the issue? --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 11:01, 19 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Both are true, but not in the same year surrounding the same February. The point is that January and March are long enough to have more than one lunation, February is short enough to have less than one lunation. It can happen that February has no full moon or that it has not new moon. When that happens January and March must each have two of the phases that are missing from the intervening February. Chi And H (talk) 14:34, 19 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

All of which raises the obvious question – so what? Looks like wp:trivia to me. Delete? 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 20:18, 19 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

wp:trivia doesn´t seem to cover the case of a whole article. To me it is not obvious that the above "inconsistency" shows this topic to be trivial. The black moon topic does sometimes make it into the media, similar to the blue moon and the supermoon. As an astronomer I find that trivial, but that is subjective. Keep. Chi And H (talk) 05:19, 20 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I understand that I must clarify. The thing is, that both contexts (new moon and full moon) must have the same wordings. EITHER both should be the preceding January and the following March, OR both should be the preceding January or December and the following March or April. I know an awful lot of astronomy and calendars, so if I'm mistaken, I would really like an explanation why there would be a difference between new moons and full moons.

(By the way, I think that the second version is correct. It would be theoretically possible to have only one full moon (or new moon) in 31+28 days or 28+31 days, as two synodic months are ever so slightly more than 59 days.) Fomalhaut76 (talk) 17:18, 20 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, well spotted. December and April were removed in mobile edit earlier this year, in one instance and not the other.Chi And H (talk) 20:04, 20 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

We seem to have two policies in a collision here. So can we sidestep the problem if we rewrite it like this:

No single, universally accepted definition for the term black moon exists.^[1] It is not a term used in astronomy.

The first known use of term is in 2016.^[1][a] Among the meanings ascribed to it are these: a second new moon that appears in the same month; the third new moon in an astronomical season with four new moons; the absence of a new moon in February; or the absence of a full moon in February.^[1]

Would that work?

𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 21:35, 7 September 2025 (UTC) tweaked --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 21:37, 7 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes that would work. The problem seems simply to be that the subject of the page is called "a term". In old versions of the page that was not the case, "black moon" was treated similar to "blue moon" or even "new moon". Chi And H (talk) 17:06, 13 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

 Done as there have been no other responses. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 19:43, 13 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).