The sixth full moon of 2024, also known as the ‘Strawberry Moon’, made a spectacular appearance in the evening sky on Friday and marked a change in the seasons.
It coincided with the start of astronomical summer north of the equator and the start of winter south of the equator, but also marked a rare “major lunar standstill” not seen since 2006.
Here’s a collection of the most captivating images of the full “Strawberry Moon” from around the world.
The best time to see the ‘Strawberry Moon’ at its brightest and best was at dusk on Friday, June 21. As it rose, it displayed a beautiful muted orange color when seen on the eastern horizon just after sunset in the west.
The last rising night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the ‘Strawberry Moon’ is always the lowest full moon. This is because it reflects the position of the sun. when the sun is at its highest point, the full moon – which is opposite the sun – will be at its lowest point. In practice, this means that it never rises very high in the sky.
However, this year this is even more extreme due to the great lunar standstill once every 18.6 years. When the inclinations of the moon and the Earth are at their maximum, the moon rises and sets at the farthest points of its reach on the horizon.
The moon will rise about five degrees beyond ecliptic, the path of the sun in the sky. So the moon will rise, hang, and set about five degrees lower in the sky than the sun at the winter solstice. We saw it best at Friday’s full moon.
Dark patches on the moon are known as MARYsolidified lava plains from about three billion years ago. Mare Tranquillitatis— the “Sea of ​​Tranquility” — was the landing site of Apollo 11 in 1969, the first time humans landed on the moon.
It can be seen on the left side of the moon as seen from the northern hemisphere. We always see the same side of the moon because it is tidally locked to Earth.
Where you are on Earth greatly affects how you see the moon and its phases. Anyone from the northern hemisphere viewing the moon from the southern hemisphere will think it looks upside down.
It is because the moon orbits the Earth around its equator. From the equator it passes directly overhead while at the poles it appears only near the horizon.
Earth’s only natural satellite, the moon is about one-sixth the size of Earth and the fifth largest moon in the solar system after Io, Callisto and Ganymede on Jupiter and Titan on Saturn.
The next full moon, known as the “Buck Moon,” will occur at 6:17 AM. EDT on Sunday, July 21, 2024, and will be best visible at moonrise later that day.
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