The Encyclopedia of New Zealand: The Maori lunar calendar
A few days later, the area of illumination continues to increase. More than half of the moons face appears to be getting sunlight. This phase is called awaxing gibbousmoon.
Next, the moon moves until more than half of its face appears to be getting sunlight, but the amount is decreasing. This is thewaning gibbousphase.
Days later, the moon has moved another quarter of the way around Earth, to thethird quarterposition. The suns light is now shining on the other half of the visible face of the moon.
Each full moon is calculated to occur at an exact moment, which may or may not be near the time the moon rises where you are. So when a full moon rises, its typically doing so some hours before or after the actual time when its technically full, but a casual skywatcher wont notice the difference. In fact, the moon will often look roughly the same on two consecutive nights surrounding the full moon.
Next, the moon moves into thewaning crescentphase as less than half of its face appears to be getting sunlight, and the amount is decreasing.
The moon shows its full face to Earth once a month. Well, sort of.
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The next full moon will be onTuesday, May 29. The April full moon is typically known as the Full Flower Moon or thefull Milk Moon, the Corn Planting Moon and the Dragon Moon.
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December: Strawberry Moon, Honey Moon, Rose Moon
Full moon names often correspond to seasonal markers, so a Harvest Moon occurs at the end of the growing season, in September or October, and the Cold Moon occurs in frosty December. At least, thats how it works in the Northern Hemisphere.
November: Corn Moon, Milk Moon, Flower Moon, Hare Moon
A week after new moon, the moon is 90 degrees away from the sun in the sky and is half-illuminated from our point of view, what we callfirst quarterbecause it is about a quarter of the way around Earth.
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Many cultures have given distinct names to each recurring full moon. The names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. TheFarmers Almanaclists several names that are commonly used in the United States. The almanac explains that there were some variations in the moon names, but in general, the same ones were used among the Algonquin tribes from New England on west to Lake Superior. European settlers followed their own customs and created some of their own names.
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Finally, the moon moves back to its new moon starting position. Because the moons orbit is not exactly in the same plane as Earths orbit around the sun, they rarely are perfectly aligned. Usually the moon passes above or below the sun from our vantage point, but occasionally it passes right in front of the sun, and we get aneclipse of the sun.
You can seeour full April Full Moon Guide here.
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October: Egg Moon, Fish Moon, Seed Moon, Pink Moon, Waking Moon
This is when full moons will occur in 2018, according to NASA:
May: Hunters Moon, Beaver Moon, Frost Moon
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A few days later, as the moon moves around Earth, the side we can see gradually becomes more illuminated by direct sunlight. This thin sliver is called thewaxing crescent.
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June: Oak Moon, Cold Moon, Long Nights Moon
February(mid-summer): Grain Moon, Sturgeon Moon, Red Moon, Wyrt Moon, Corn Moon, Dog Moon, Barley Moon
April: Harvest Moon, Hunters Moon, Blood Moon
August: Snow Moon, Storm Moon, Hunger Moon, Wolf Moon
September: Worm Moon, Lenten Moon, Crow Moon, Sugar Moon, Chaste Moon, Sap Moon
When the moon has moved 180 degrees from its new moon position, the sun, Earth and the moon form a line. The moons disk is as close as it can be to being fully illuminated by the sun, so this is calledfull moon.
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Heres how themoons phasesgo:
Other Native American people had different names. In the book This Day in North American Indian History (Da Capo Press, 2002), author Phil Konstantin lists more than 50 native peoples and their names for full moons. He also lists them on his .
In the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are switched, the Harvest Moon occurs in March and the Cold Moon is in June. According , these are common names for full moons south of the equator.
Atnew moon, the moon is between Earth and the sun, so that the side of the moon facing toward us receives no direct sunlight, and is lit only by dim sunlight reflected from Earth.
In fact, the same side of the moon always faces the planet, but part of it is in shadow. And, in reality most of the time the full moon is never perfectly full. Only when the moon, Earth and the sun are perfectly aligned is the moon 100 percent full, and that alignment produces alunar eclipse. And sometimes once in ablue moon the moon is full twice in a month (or four times in a season, depending on which definition you prefer). [The Moon: 10 Surprising Facts]
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Amateur astronomer Keith Cooley has a brief list of themoon names of other cultures, including Chinese and Celtic, on his website. For example:
Tim Sharp is the Reference Editor for . He manages articles that explain scientific concepts, describe natural phenomena and define technical terms. Previously, he was a Technology Editor at m and the Online Editor at the Des Moines Register. He was also a copy editor at several newspapers. Before joining Purch, Tim was a developmental editor at the Hazelden Foundation. He has a journalism degree from the University of Kansas. Follow Tim onGoogle+
Themoon is a spherethat travels once around Earth every 27.3 days. It also takes about27 days for the moon to rotate on its axis. So, the moon always shows us the same face; there is no single dark side of the moon. As the moon revolves around Earth, it is illuminated from varying angles by the sun what we see when we look at the moon is reflected sunlight. On average, the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, which means sometimes it rises during daylight and other times during nighttime hours.
January: Hay Moon, Buck Moon, Thunder Moon, Mead Moon