Tonight’s Full Moon will be the biggest the lunar surface has looked from Earth so far this year. This s because it is also a Supermoon: the closest, brightest Full Moon. Two supermoons will be seen in August, which will include a blue moon that will be the closest moon to Earth this year.  The fourth and final supermoon in 2023 will rise on 29th September.

Commonly called the Buck Moon (because the antlers of male deer (bucks) are in full-growth mode at this time), it is also known as the Thunder Moon, or Hay Moon.  Traditionally, each full Moon name was applied to the entire lunar month in which it occurred, not solely to the Full Moon.

• The indigenous Ojibwe people of the Great Lakes region call this Moon the Halfway Summer Moon, or the Raspberry Moon.
• The Cherokees call it the Corn in Tassel Moon.
• The Cree Nation of central Canada calls the Full Moon the Feather Moulting Moon
• The Mohawks call it the Fruits are Ripened Moon.

Because the Moon is full when it is opposite the sun in the sky, Full Moons always rise in the east as the sun is setting, and set in the west at sunrise. Since sunlight is striking the Moon vertically at that time, no shadows are cast; all of the variations in brightness you see arise from differences in the reflectivity of the lunar surface rocks 🙂

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