The beaver moon

While people were enjoying the fireworks in Wokingham on Saturday they will have noticed the Full Moon in the sky above.

One Full Moon looks much the same to the unaided eye as another (although keen both amateur and professional Astronomers may disagree !).

Native North Americans used to differentiate between the Full Moons by sequentially giving them names corresponding to what they saw going on or any jobs they had to get done.

Saturday’s (04-Nov-2017) Full Moon was known to them as a “Beaver Moon” (according to my neighbour Chris), they saw a lot of Beavers swimming around, building up food supplies for the approaching (very cold) winter and the Indians had to try and trap the more accessible Beavers to provide them with furs to make warm clothing for the approaching Winter.

Most of the names are chosen because of single observations/jobs, “Beaver Moon” is unusual in that it is chosen because of an observation by and a job for the North American Indians.

In addition to a “Beaver Moon” the Full Moon on 04-Nov_2017 was a “Super Moon” (the second of 3 this year), appearing largest because on that night the Moon’s (elliptical) orbit was nearest to the Earth, some people would call it a “Giant Beaver Moon” but not because they had seen any Giant Beavers ! Harry Atkinson, Wokingham