The Full Moon – The Full Strawberry Moon – in June will be on June 17th 4:31 am Eastern Time
Full Strawberry Moon – June This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!
Full Moon names date back to Native Americans of North America. Tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Full Moon names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the full Moon names, but in general, the same ones were consistent among regional tribes. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Here is the Farmers Almanac’s list of the full Moon names: https://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names
In 2019, the full Moon of March rises the same day as the vernal equinox—marking the start of spring! How fitting for what we call the “Full Worm Moon.” March also brings the final supermoon of 2019. Here’s all you need to know.
In 2019, the full Moon of March rises the same day as the vernal equinox—marking the start of spring! How fitting for what we call the “Full Worm Moon.” March also brings the final supermoon of 2019. Here’s all you need to know.
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This is one of those rare years when the full Moon lands right smack on the spring equinox—on March 20, 2019, in North America.This only happens three times a century, on average. Plus, it’s the third and final “supermoon.” Enjoy the extra-bright equinox full moon Wednesday night!
Here’s a video, featuring Amy Nieskens
SUPER MOON ON THE SPRING EQUINOX
The March full Moon is particularly special because it reaches its peak on the same day as the spring equinox, on March 20, 2019. The last time the full Moon and the spring equinox coincided this closely (4 hours apart) was in March 2000, but the last time they occurred on the same date was on March 20, 1981!
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This full Moon is also a supermoon, meaning the Moon will be nearly at its closest to Earth for the month of March. It’s the year’s third (and final) of three straight full supermoons. This means that the Moon may “appear” brighter and bigger than normal, provided the night sky is clear and dark.
THE FULL MOON AND EASTER
Did you know: Easter Sunday (in the Western Christian Church) is celebrated on the first Sunday after the full Moon that occurs on or just after the vernal equinox.
Since the full Moon AND the vernal equinox both fall on March 20 this year (in North America, at least), you might expect that Easter Sunday would be on the following Sunday, March 24.
However, for simplicity’s sake, the Church set a fixed date for the equinox, March 21.Additionally, the Church does not rely on the date of the astronomical full Moon, but rather the ecclesiastical full Moon, which occurs on the 14th day of the ecclesiastical lunar month. The date of the ecclesiastical full Moon may fall one to two days before the astronomical full Moon. Therefore, because the first full Moon after March 21 doesn’t occur until April 19 this year, Easter Sunday 2019 falls on Sunday, April 21!
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(This is not the first time the church’s “set” equinox and astronomy’s “moving” equinox affected Easter’s date; it last happened in 1981 and will happen again in 2038.)
October This full Moon is often referred to as the Full Hunter’s Moon, Blood Moon, or Sanguine Moon. Many moons ago, Native Americans named this bright moon for obvious reasons. The leaves are falling from trees, the deer are fattened, and it’s time to begin storing up meat for the long winter ahead. Because the fields were traditionally reaped in late September or early October, hunters could easily see fox and other animals that come out to glean from the fallen grains. Probably because of the threat of winter looming close, the Hunter’s Moon is generally accorded with special honor, historically serving as an important feast day in both Western Europe and among many Native American tribes.
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THE HUNTER’S MOON MEANING
The Algonquin Native American tribes referred to October’s Moon as the Full Hunter’s Moon because time to go hunting in preparation for winter. Since the harvesters have reaped the fields, hunters can easily see the fattened deer and other animals that have come out to glean (and the foxes that have come out to prey on them).
The earliest use of the term “Hunter’s Moon” cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1710. Some sources suggest that other names for the Hunter’s Moon are the Sanguine or Blood Moon, either associated with the blood from with hunting or the turning of the leaves in autumn. Other Native American tribes, who tied the full Moon names to the season’s activities, called the full Moon the “Travel Moon” and the “Dying Grass Moon.”
The next full Moon will appear “opposite” the Sun (in Earth-based longitude) at 9:47 AM PT. The Moon will appear full for about three days centered around this time, from Tuesday morning through Thursday night
by Heard about this “Super Blue Blood Moon” on January 31? Let’s break this down: That’s a Supermoon, a Blue Moon, and a Blood Moon on the same night, thanks to a total lunar eclipse. A convergence of all three events last happened 150 years ago. Find out the best places to see this event.
From Almanac.com
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A SUPERMOON, BLUE MOON, AND LUNAR ECLIPSE ON JANUARY 31 6:25 PM Las Vegas Time
SUPER BLUE BLOOD MOON ECLIPSE
“Super Blue Blood Moon Eclipse” is the description many Web sites are giving for the full Moon coming up. So, what does this mean? A Moon that’s super-big? One that’s blue? One that’s blood red? Maybe a combination of blue and red! A purple Supermoon?
A Supermoon occurs when the Moon is closest to Earth during its orbit, and theoretically larger than average.
A Blue Moon is the popular name for a second full Moon in the same calendar month.
A ”Blood Moon” refers to the Moon’s hue on the night of a total lunar eclipse; it normally turns a coppery red.
Put ‘em all together and that’s what you’ve got.
Actual astronomers smile and shake their heads at these catchy names. They really want more people to watch the sky, and having names for things helps with publicity.
Call it what you wish! Each celestial event is interesting in itself. When you put them together so they occur on the same night, it’s unique. Sometimes the celestial rhythms just sync up to make us wonder.
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SUPERMOON
January 31 is also the grand finale of a trilogy of Supermoons that have been taking place since early December.
“Supermoon” is a new term. No one used it until a few years ago. Instead, the Moon’s closest approach to Earth—full or otherwise—was called a Perigean Moon. The problem is that even the very closest Moon does not look any larger than your average normal Full Moon. The size difference is too small for the naked eye to detect. But, okay, call it super.
A Moon at perigee can appear up to 14% bigger. January 31’s total lunar eclipse will occur 1.2 days after perigee so the Moon’s diameter will appear about 7% bigger than average. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
The “Supermoon” term has not been used merely for the closest Moon of the year, but also for the second closest, and third closest, and so on. This one coming up on January 31 is, for example, the third of a trilogy and the second closest of 2018. It’s 358,816 km away, as compared with the January 1 Full Moon which was 356,565 km away.
People post telephoto pictures on social media, depicting enormous-looking Moons in the sky. So astronomers like myself are concerned that the public will look up, see nothing unusual, and just shrug. Read more…
BLUE MOON
“Blue Moon” has become a popular term for the second Full Moon in a month; the name arose because of a Depression-era mistake in an astronomy magazine. The term was never used by astronomers or the ancient Greeks, or Native Americans, or anybody else. Despite the name, the Moon won’t look blue at all. Indeed, the expression “once in a Blue Moon” doesn’t apply since it’s not that rare; the event occurs every 2-½ years.
That said, the Total Eclipse of a Blue Moon hasn’t occurred since March 31, 1866. That’s 152 years ago!
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“The early Native Americans did not record time by using the months of the Julian or Gregorian calendar. Many tribes kept track of time by observing the seasons and lunar months, although there was much variability. For some tribes, the year contained 4 seasons and started at a certain season, such as spring or fall. Others counted 5 seasons to a year. Some tribes defined a year as 12 Moons, while others assigned it 13. Certain tribes that used the lunar calendar added an extra Moon every few years, to keep it in sync with the seasons.”
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JANUARY FULL MOONS
January 2018 is a very special month:
“The month’s first full Moon, the Full Wolf Moon, rises on January 1. What a great way to start the year!
A second full Moon (a Blue Moon) rises on the 31st, and brings the year’s only eclipse for North America just before dawn. Its total phase can be seen from west of the Mississippi and in western Canada.
Both of January’s full Moons are Supermoons!”
“Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year. Here is the Farmers Almanac’s list of the full Moon names.”
“The Full Wolf Moon – January Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.”
“Each tribe that did name the full Moons (and/or lunar months) had its own naming preferences. Some would use 12 names for the year while others might use 5, 6, or 7; also, certain names might change the next year. A full Moon name used by one tribe might differ from one used by another tribe for the same time period, or be the same name but represent a different time period. The name itself was often a description relating to a particular activity/event that usually occurred during that time in their location.”
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“Colonial Americans adopted some of the Native American full Moon names and applied them to their own calendar system (primarily Julian, and later, Gregorian). Since the Gregorian calendar is the system that many in North America use today, that is how we have presented the list of Moon names, as a frame of reference. The Native American names have been listed by the month in the Gregorian calendar to which they are most closely associated.” https://www.almanac.com
JULY FULL MOON NAMES
July is the month of the Full Buck Moon. At this time, a buck’s antlers are in full growth mode. This Full Moon was also known as the Thunder Moon because thunderstorms are so frequent during this month.
How did the Full Moons get their names? The Full Moons have descriptive names that come from Native American tribes who used the Full Moons as a sort of calendar to keep track of the seasons. The Almanac tends to use the names of the Algonquins who were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the St. Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes.
Buffy Sainte-Marie is a Native Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. – WIKI. She is a member of the Cree Indian tribe.
From The Old Farmer’s Almanac FULL SNOW MOON
February’s full Moon is traditionally called the Full Snow Moon because usually the heaviest snows fall in February. This name dates back to the Native Americans during Colonial times when the Moons were a way of tracking the seasons. And the Native Americans were right. On average, February is the USA’s snowiest month, according to data from the National Weather Service.
Hunting becomes very difficult, and so some Native American tribes called this the Hunger Moon. Other Native American tribes called this Moon the “Shoulder to Shoulder Around the Fire Moon” (Wishram Native Americans), the “No Snow in the Trails Moon” (Zuni Native Americans), and the “Bone Moon” (Cherokee Native Americans). The Bone Moon meant that there was so little food that people gnawed on bones and ate bone marrow soup.
Here’s The Old Farmer’s Almanac’s Full Moon Video for February narrated by Amy Nieskens
Friday night, February 10, 2017 brings the Full Snow Moon—as well as a penumbra lunar eclipse and the close approach of a comet. Get more details.
Read what Almanac astronomer Bob Berman has to say about this “triple treat” in this week’s Amazing Sky column, “Friday Night: Spectacle or Bust?”
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This Week: A Penumbral Lunar Eclipse – What Is It?
We have an eclipse of the full Moon scheduled for Friday night, February 10th, but it’s not likely that the astronomical community at large is going to get very excited about it. Why? Because this eclipse is actually a “penumbral” lunar eclipse.
The Earth casts not one, but two types of shadows out into space: an umbra, the shadow directly around it, and a penumbra (see graphic, below). When the Moon passes into the umbra, we can readily see a dark and very distinct outline of the Earth’s circular shadow cast upon Moon’s disk. The penumbra, on the other hand, casts a much fainter and far less distinct shadow, which is far more difficult to perceive and as such might not immediately catch your eye read more…
From The Old Farmer’s Almanac
For Moon fans, September, 2016 will provide plenty of Moon action! The month begins and ends with a New Moon, with the Full Moon precisely sandwiched in between, on the 16th day.
The Full Moon nearest the autumn equinox is named the Harvest Moon since, during this month, the Moon helps the harvest by providing more light at the right time than other Full Moons do.
Witness the Full Harvest Moon Eclipse Friday! Watch as the Moon Moves into Earth’s Shadow.
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In years when the Harvest Moon falls in October, the September full Moon is usually known as the Full Corn Moon because it traditionally corresponds with the time of harvesting corn. It is also called the Barley Moon because this is the time to harvest and thresh the ripened barley.
September’s Full Moon Video featuring Amy Nieskens
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LIVE HARVEST MOON SHOW!
On Friday, September 16, at 9:45 AM PDT | 12:45 PM EDT | 16:45 UTC, The Old Farmer’s Almanac is partnering with Slooh to host a broadcast of the Harvest Moon. Watch the live feed below!
Slooh will be teaming up with global feed partners in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Western Australia, where the eclipse is will be visible, to bring viewers the live lunar show from start to finish.
Learn what causes a Lunar Eclipse and the differences between a Total Lunar Eclipse and this week’s Penumbral Lunar Eclipse. Bob Berman, Slooh Astronomer and Astronomy Editor for The Old Farmer’s Almanac, will also be on hand to discuss the odd ways the Moon moves around our home planet, leading to these different eclipses throughout the year. He and Paul will also explore recent headlines that suggest our nearest neighbor’s origins were more violent than previously thought.
Janice Stillman, Editor of The Old Farmer’s Almanac, will offer insights into the history and folklore surrounding the Harvest Moon. They’ll discuss the different names the September Moon has been given by different cultures, and delve into some of the cultural stories and traditions surrounding the Harvest Moon, and the annual harvests associated with it.
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Watch the live stream [ CLICK HERE ] on FRIDAY, September 16, 12:45 PM (EDT)
Live Stream starts: 9:45 AM PDT ¦ 12:45 PM EDT ¦ 16:45UTC
Live Stream ends: 2:00 PM PDT ¦ 5:00 PM EDT ¦ 21:00UTC
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The Full Sturgeon Moon will be 100% full on Thursday, August 18 at 2:29 A.M. Pacific Time.
AUGUST FULL MOON NAMES
Some Native American tribes called the August Moon the “Sturgeon Moon” because they knew that the sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were most readily caught during this Full Moon. They also called August’s Moon the “Full Green Corn Moon.”
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