Rare Black Moon Set To Rise Friday

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A somewhat unusual celestial event is set to take place Friday night; a rare Black Moon.

So what's a Black Moon? It's the second new moon in a single month.

It's an unusual lunar event that won't happen again in the western hemisphere until July 2019.

This Black Moon will rise Friday at 8:11 p.m. but you won't see much. That's because new moons are the beginning cycle of the moon phase, when it is not visible because of the position of the Sun, Earth and Moon.

Unlike a full moon, when the moon's Earth-facing side is fully illuminated by sunlight, a new moon is just the opposite, when the moon's Earth-facing side is fully in shadow and not easily seen with the naked eye. That means, nothing to see until a silver sliver appears a few days later as the crescent moon increases in size.

Black Moons only occur about once every 32 months. The opposite of a Black Moon is a Blue Moon which is the second full moon in a single month.