Look up! Strawberry Moon is year’s most colorful full moon
Low arc means light hits more atmospheric dust
Look up in the sky this week — the Strawberry Moon will be shining brightly as long as the skies are clear.
This month’s full moon is the most colorful all year.
“It’s a cool moon because it traces a shallow path across the sky,” said Bob Bonadurer, director of the Milwaukee Public Museum’s Daniel M. Soref Dome Theater & Planetarium.
The full moon starts at 11:53 p.m. Wednesday in Milwaukee. The forecast that night is for partly cloudy skies in southeastern Wisconsin, according to the National Weather Service.
“It’s the most colorful of all full moons. We always get more color in the sky when things are lower,” said Bonadurer.
The shallow arc of the June full moon means moonlight must travel through more of the Earth’s atmosphere, which filters out all of the colors of the moon’s spectrum except oranges and yellows.
That’s the same reason sunrises and sunsets are so colorful, said Bonadurer.
“When it’s near rising and setting, it has a better chance of turning a more reddish color. When it’s up due south in the middle of the night it will appear more pale yellow,” Bonadurer said. “Then it has more of a honey color.”
No telescopes are needed, just look up. The best chance to see the most colors is at moonrise and moonset. The Strawberry Moon will rise in the southeast sky and set in the south-
west.
Bonadurer recommends finding an area with a clear view of the horizon with no trees or structures.
Even better — go to the top of a hill or watch it come up over a lake.
Europeans and American Indian tribes named moons after activities or events they associated with that time of year, back when it was more common to track seasons by the lunar month than by clocks and calendars.
The June full moon has several monikers. Strawberry is the most common, so named because it’s the start of berry-picking season, when wild strawberries begin to ripen.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac attributes the Strawberry Moon name to the Algonquin tribes who knew it as a signal to gather the delectable berries.
It’s also called Hot Moon, because it’s the beginning of summer, Rose Moon, Honey Moon and Hay Moon because it’s the time of the first hay harvest.
This year there were two blue moons — January and March each had two moons, an anomaly that’s fairly rare.
Full moons occur every 29.5 days, which is why it’s difficult to fit two in one month.
Sometimes the Strawberry Moon occurs on the summer solstice, but that, too, is rare.
The last time a full moon happened on the longest day of the year in Wisconsin was 2016. The next one isn’t until 2062.
Sometimes the Strawberry Moon occurs on the summer solstice, but that, too, is rare. The last time a full moon happened on the longest day of the year in Wisconsin was 2016. The next one isn't until 2062.