August’s Full Moon is on Friday, 12th August at 02.36hrs so will appear slightly larger and brighter on Thursday evening. It is the final Supermoon of 2022.
This lunation is known as the Sturgeon Moon. This is because the giant sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were most readily caught during this part of summer.
The Sturgeon Moon is also referred to as:
- Full Green Corn Moon, signalling that the corn was nearly ready for harvest.
- Grain Moon,
- Fruit Moon,
- Barley Moon,
- Wheat Cut Moon
- Blueberry Moon.
August also brings us the most popular meteor shower of the year. As our planet rotates the sun, every August, the Earth crashes into a cloud of debris left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle. As the debris burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere, it produces the meteor shower that we call the Perseids.
The Perseid meteor shower gets its name as it appears to come out of the constellation Perseus. They can appear from any part of the sky, so the more sky you can see the better.
They are active now and set to peak on 13th August. Enjoy!
