Night sky alarms will be treated this week for a view of a red-tinted full moon known in June as a “strawberry moon”-a phenomenon that occurs when the moon is low on the southern horizon.
This summer the reddish color is particularly pronounced because the moon is in the lowest position that he will reach for about 19 years.
The colorful shades of the Strawberry Moon were visible on Tuesday evening and reached its brightest point around 4 o’clock Eastern Time on Wednesday evening.
This is what it looked like:
The full moon of every month has a name.
According to Folklore, the name “Strawberry Moon” came from Algonquin Native American Tribes to commemorate the Strawberry -collection season. Another name for the full moon in June is “Rose Moon”, which may have come from Europe.
“Most traditional names we use seem to come from Indian use, but some are clearly European origin, such as those in December, called ‘The Moon Before Yule’, a reference to Christmas,” said James Lattis, a historian of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The moon will not be so low on the southern horizon for about 19 years.
Summer full of moons are always low compared to the full moons of winter in the northern hemisphere, and are therefore more reddish in color, Dr. Lattis. That’s because viewing the moon through the atmosphere gives it a reddish tint, just like the colors visible during a sunrise or sunset, he said.
“If someone looks straight up to heaven, there is less atmosphere,” he said. “If you look through the horizon, you look through the most atmosphere.”
The Strawberry Moon will still be “visually full” for observers on Wednesday evening.
Dr. Lattis said he had looked at the moon in Wisconsin on Tuesday evening, and that it was remarkable for the pink hue it had of smoke in the air of forest fires. He said that the sight may not be that dramatic elsewhere.
“I hate to discourage someone to go out and look at the moon – it’s great to do, and often, if you don’t give someone any reason, they will never do it,” he said. “But it’s just a full moon again.”
- Advertisement -
