Many names for the full moon
12 comments Print Me Email to FriendTonight is Friday, Jul 18 2008
This photo is from Dan Bush’s wonderful moon page. Be sure to look there for many beautiful moon photographs. Bush calls this photo an image of the “Buck Moon.” That’s an unfamiliar name to me, but I can see by his date that it’s a full moon in July.
In 2008, the full moon of July came at 3 a.m. on today’s date. So tonight’s moon will actually be a bit less full than last night’s moon.
In fact, all the full moons of every season have been called by many names. Here are some of them:
Full moon names and their meanings, from the Farmer’s Almanac.
The names of the moons, from Richard Minutillo.
The names of the full moons, from the Nine Planets website.
This article will help you understand moon phases.
Deborah-
I absolutely love the moon. It’s the very first celestial object I really got interested in as a child. Obviously it’s far more visible than the stars in the sky and it changes it’s phases on a monthly basis making it a source of daily interest.
Additionally, there is all the folklore and mythology attached to the moon from bygone eras and ancient cultures. The article on the names of the full moons is fascinating and I notice that many different cultures had different names for the same full moon than a culture on the other side of the world. For instance many of the Native American names had to do with the growing season and hunting and fishing as well as the cold of winter. Many of the names from ancient Celtic cultures had to do with magic and pagan religious rites.
Add to that the fact that the moon has a direct influence on our planet by pulling the surface of the ocean back and forth and it’s no wonder that we are continually fascinated and even emotionally stimulated by the appearance of the moon in the sky in its many phases and changing positions.
These kind of stories are what make Earth and Sky one of my favorite sites to visit and listen to on the web.
Keep up the good work!
Keith Cantrell
Thank you Keith!
Like you … perhaps like billions of others on Earth … the moon holds a special fascination for me, too.
All the best,
Deborah
Is the moon tonight 7/17/08 viewed next to Mars at what one would say is 2 oclock? is this the same planet that was at 10 oclock last night ? Why is it so bright this week?
Eric, the brightest object near the moon tonight is still Jupiter – not Mars. Jupiter is always brighter than Mars in our sky.
All best,
Deborah
Would anyone be able to tell me what the object is to the left of orion and left of HD38858. coordinates;RA05H49m15s dec04:02:37. it looks like a large planetary object. Andy
Would anyone be able to tell me what the object is to the left of orion and left of HD38858. coordinates;RA05H49m15s dec04:02:37. it looks like a large planetary object. Andy
Is it true that the moon can never be literally “full” because for that to happen we would have to be standing (or sitting) directly between the sun and moon, in which case there would be at least a partial eclipse?
Andy, sorry! I don’t know the answer to your question.
Philip, hmm. It’s true that if you were standing on Earth – directly between the sun and moon – Earth’s shadow would fall on the moon and there would be an eclipse. But does that mean the moon can’t be literally ‘full?’ We astronomers say that lunar eclipses can only occur at full moon. I think we’re talking semantics here. One person’s full moon is another person’s less-than-full moon!
No easy answer here.
All best,
Deborah
Phillip,
The Sun is so much larger than the Earth that the Moon is “full” for much more than we can see from Earth.
Deborah,
Thank you……
My next question is do the folks down under see the moon and others as we or would it be like a mirror reflection… I have never gone below the USa so not sure …. I have been in Newfoudland in June and it is not the same as in CT….The sky is great…. I think the New York lights bounce into the shy thus we view things not the same as say, ohio….
I am confused. Looking for a good sky chart and I am reading that the planet to the right of the moon right now is Saturn, then Jupiter, then someone indicated that it is Mars. Which planet is it?
Jon, the planet to the right of the moon the past few nights has been Jupiter. But the moon moves throughout every month … so it has been near Mars and Saturn recently as well.
Eric, hmm. Would the moon be like a mirror reflection as seen from the southern hemisphere? I have to think about that one. We all see the same sky. But as you go south (or north) on Earth’s globe your orientation on the sky shifts. Your vantage point shifts. I’m not sure it’s exactly a mirror reflection, though. It’s more just looking at an object (the moon) from one vantage point, then another.
It’s hard to describe the difference between the northern and southern sky in words! I used to write a column about the southern hemisphere sky, using charts and books, for Astronomy magazine. Later, after writing the column for several years, I visited the southern hemisphere for the first time. It was very disorienting, even though I’d been studying it. For one thing, my sense of direction was completely thrown off. I kept thinking north was south and vice versa. And it was like seeing the sky for the first time. You should go!
Deborah