July is usually the warmest and best month of the year to view a full moon for ardent sky watchers who love space but detest the cold.
Whether you refer to it as a “buck” moon or a “thunder” moon, a stunning supermoon will appear Wednesday evening in the southeast.
The supermoon will be the largest of the year.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts that the full moon in July will reach its maximum brightness at 2:38 p.m. EDT. The almanac advised, “Plan to look toward the southeast after sunset to watch it rise into the sky. It will be below the horizon at that time.”
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What makes a moon a supermoon?
A supermoon occurs when the moon’s orbit brings it significantly closer to Earth than usual.
Weather permitting, the moon may appear a little larger and brighter than usual.
According to NASA, different publications use slightly different standards to determine when a full moon is sufficiently close to the Earth to be considered a supermoon. The moon is sometimes closer to Earth than at other times during its orbit because its orbit is not a perfect circle.
Supermoons typically appear 7 percent larger and 15 percent brighter than a regular full moon.
Is this the thunder moon or the buck moon?
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the nickname for the moon is a combination of Native American, Colonial American, and European sources.
People have named the months after the signs of nature for thousands of years, including Native Americans in the eastern and central United States.
According to the almanac, “the tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon.”
According to the almanac, the full moon in July is known as the “buck moon” because male deer (bucks) are at their peak antler growth during this time. Each year, buck antlers are shed and regrown, growing larger and more impressive over time.
According to NASA’s Gordon Johnston, the full moon in July is also known as the “thunder” moon due to the early summer’s frequent thunderstorms.
According to Earthsky.com, the full moon in July is also known as the “hay” moon because farmers rush to store hay in their barns in advance of storms. Other full moon nicknames for this month include the berry moon, the halfway summer moon, and the salmon moon, according to AccuWeather.
Because it occurred during strawberry harvest, the supermoon of June 14 was dubbed the “strawberry moon” a month prior.
