Full Moon Names
Published on May 13, 2006 at 12:50 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under moon, skywatching.
Happy Flower Moon!
Well grades are done. I got them all turned in to the registrar. The semester is over!!!!! I think that I look forward to that more than most of my students. This has always been a stressful time of the year for me. I sort of envy my friends who are not in academia. They get to take vacations and do all sorts of things while I am in this final stressful push. Pretty much my whole life takes a back seat to finishing the semester. Adding to that is the fact that our administrators pile on end of year paperwork. Well, it isn’t really end of year paper work, since the academic year goes through the end of the summer. However, many of our faculty don’t teach in the summer, so they figure that none of us are around, and thus they hit us with end of year paper work. Heck, if they made the deadline the middle of summer, then the faculty not teaching in the summer would either come in to do it, or else they’d do it before they leave. But, administrators don’t always think that way. Anyway, it is now time for another astronomical posting.
Hmm. Looking back on my few astronomical postings, I seem to be fixated on the Moon. Yeah, the last posting was for new amateur astronomers, but most have been about the Moon. Oh, well. If I’m going to fixate on something, the Moon is at least astronomical!
So, early this morning (Central time zone here where I live in the United States) the Moon was full. Yeah, it looked full the night before, and it will look full tonight. In fact, it looked full to the casual observer for a couple of nights. However, the full moon occurs when the moon is as close to being opposite the Sun in the sky as it is going to get. It normally doesn’t get exactly opposite. When it does, then of course the Earth is exactly between the Moon and the Sun, so the Earth’s shadow falls on the Moon and we get a lunar eclipse. But it always gets pretty close to opposite about every 29.5 days. That is the full moon. With a telescope, you can see that there is virtually nowhere that you can see shadows at that time, since you are looking from the same direction as the Sun. A night before or after, the Moon will show a thin bank around one edge or the other (technically, we call the edge of the Moon the limb of the Moon) where you see shadow. Being opposite the Sun, the full moon rises as sunset and sets at sunrise. Any other phase of the Moon rises before or after sunset and sets either before or after sunrise. The farther the Moon is from full, the bigger this effect, which is why you see the Moon in the daylight sometimes. The farthest the Moon can be from full is new moon, when it is as close to aligned with the Sun as possible on the sunward side of the Earth. On that day, the Moon rises at sunrise and sets at sunset.
Well, as I said, the full moon was early this morning. To be exact, the full moon was at 06:51 UT. The UT means “Universal Time,” which is the local mean time at the prime meridian. For those of you not in astronomy, read that as Greenwich Mean Time. 06:51 UT corresponds to 1:51am CDT here in Texas. Normally, there is supposed to be a six hour time difference here, but since we are on daylight saving time, we add an hour to hour clock, making this five hour difference, instead.
The full moon, being exactly opposite the Sun in the sky, is interesting because, as I said, it rises at sunset, sets at sunrise, and thus is up all night. In an earlier post, I mentioned that the light of the Moon is enough to read by. In fact, you can do all sorts of things by the light of the full moon. If you are dark adapted, you can fish by the light of the Moon, drive by the light of the Moon, and even see someone sneaking up on you. That is why during World War II, almost all American amphibious landings were at full moon. That way, when night came, the defenders could not easily sneak up on our soldiers in the dark, since there wasn’t much dark! Now, with night vision goggles, we turn things around and do all our invasions at new moon, when it is as dark as possible. But, another thing that you can do by the light of the full moon is farming. When you are harvesting crops, you might want to keep going after sunset. The Moon gives plenty of light to keep working after dark. Often harvesting occurs in September or October, so the full moon that occurs nearest the Autumnal Equinox (normally about September 22 or 23) is called the Harvest Moon here in the Northern Hemisphere. The full moon the following month is often called the Hunter’s Moon. People have often heard these terms. However, there are names associated with the rest of the full moons, too.
While pretty much everyone agrees on the name of the full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox and the full moon following that one, there isn’t nearly as much agreement on the names for the rest of the full moons. So, what I am about to tell you is just one interpretation.
The full moon closest to the Winter Solstice, about December 21 or 22, is called the Cold Moon, or the Frost Moon, or the Christmas Moon (particularly if it occurs in the week after the solstice). The first full moon of the year is generally the Wolf Moon. The second full moon of the year is often the Ice Moon or the Snow Moon. Interesting enough, the full moon in November is also sometimes called the Snow Moon, particularly farther to the North, say in Canada, or the Frost Moon if the December full moon is not called that. Sometimes, the November Moon is called the Beaver Moon, at least it was in places where beaver hunting was a big deal. The March full moon is sometimes the Storm Moon, the Worm Moon, or the Sap Moon, depending where you are from. In southern Canada, it was often the Crow Moon. If it occurs in the first three weeks of March, it is sometimes called the Lenten Moon in regions where there is a strong Catholic influence. The full moon in April is often the Growing Moon, the Planting Moon, or the Egg Moon. Once in a while, the April full moon is called the Rainy Moon, since in most of the country it rains a lot in April. (This has always confused me as to why they put National Astronomy Day in April! You seldom get to see anything.) In the Northwest, the April moon was the Fish Moon, as fish were swimming upstream to spawn. Overriding each of these is the term Easter Moon for the first full moon following March 21. The rule for computing Easter is that Easter is the Sunday following the first full moon after March 21.
Finally, we get to this month’s full moon: the May full moon. This is often called the Flower Moon. After all the rain in April, flowers grow in May. Well, that is what is supposed to happen. Actually, what normally happens around here is that weeds grow. I guess that they often have flowers, too, but they are icky flowers that produce pollin that upsets everyone’s allergies. Up north, say in Canada, the May full moon was mostly the Hare Moon. I guess that they have more rabbits than flowers in May. Often their June moon was the Flower Moon. I have also heard Corn Planting Moon and Milk Moon for the May full moon.
Now we talk about the summer moons. The June full moon is sometimes called the Strawberry Moon. In Europe, it is often the Rose Moon. Here in Texas, though, the roses have all pretty much dried up for the summer by June. The July full moon is sometimes the Buck Moon or the Hay Moon, depending upon whether you live in a forested area or a prairie. Often it is the Thunder Moon, because thunderstorms often occur in July due to the high levels of surface heating that occur then. Around here a full moon beteen mid July and mid August is often the Hot Moon. The August full moon is sometimes the Grain Moon or the Dog Moon (particularly if early in the month). Near the Great Lakes, it is the Sturgeon Moon. You might wonder, if there is a Dog Moon, then is there a Cat Moon? Well, not officially, but I think that cats claim pretty much all of them — at least mine does!
If the first full moon of October occurs closest to the Autumnal Equinox, then it is the Harvest Moon, not the September full moon. In that case, the September full moon is the Wine Moon, the Singing Moon, or the Elk Moon. Of course, if you put all three together, then you get a drunk elk singing. Hmm.
Anyway, as you see, the names there isn’t really any great agreement here as to the names of the full moons. Most of these names are local in origin, so applying them across the board doesn’t really make sense. Still, it is sort of fun to call the full moon something. And, of course, it is interesting that the Flower Moon is occuring the day before Mother’s Day here in the USA this year. So, enjoy the Flower Moon!
-Astroprof
Astroprof’s Page » Not the Harvest Moon on September 7, 2006 at 10:42 am: 1
[…] A few months ago, I wrote a posting about Full Moon names while I was still at my old web site. I imported it into Astroprofspage, though, and it is here. I bring this up, because I was looking at a free calendar that I got at a local bookstore early in the year. Today is the Full Moon. The calendar marks it as “Harvest Moon.” This is incorrect! This is not the harvest moon. Let me explain. […]
Astroprof’s Page » A Blue(ish) Moon on May 31, 2007 at 12:03 pm: 2
[…] The term “Blue Moon†was being used as a filler name for an extra Full Moon of a season. By cultural convention, each Full Moon of the year has a name attached to it. For example, the Full Moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox is the Harvest Moon, and the Full Moon closest to the Winter Solstice is the Yule Moon. Each season is about three months long, and so there are normally three Full Moons in each season. When a fourth one happens, then the the sequence of Full Moon names gets messed up […]
Astroprof’s Page » Harvest Moon on September 26, 2007 at 1:25 pm: 3
[…] The Full Moon is bright. In fact, it is so bright that once you get a bit used to the level of illumination that it provides, you can even read by the light of the Moon. That means that for many things you can continue to go about some of your daytime activities by just the light of the Moon. It is no wonder, then, that many of the Full Moons have special names attached to them. I wrote about those names about a year and a half ago. […]