Look to the skies this evening and you’ll enjoy something of a rare phenomenon: A full moon on the same day as the summer solstice something that hasn’t happened since 1967.
The full moon of June, also known as the “Strawberry Moon,” will occur at 7:02 a.m. ET on Monday, according to Space.com. The solstice arrives at 6:34 p.m. ET, marking the start of summer in the northern hemisphere as the days get shorter and the nights grow longer.
Algonquin tribes believed June’s full moon meant it was time to start picking fruits such as strawberries, thus the nickname, AccuWeather reported. However, the lunar body is also known as the Rose Moon, Hot Moon or Honey Moon.
That last nickname comes from the atmospheric effects somewhat unique on the day.
“The Sun gets super high so this moon must be super-low. Even at its loftiest at 1 a.m., it’s downright wimpy-low,” astronomer Bob Berman wrote on the Old Farmer’s Almanac website. “This forces its light through thicker air, which also tends to be humid this time of year, and the combination typically makes it amber coloured. This is the true Honey Moon.”
Berman will be taking part in a live show on Slooh to discuss the rare solstice full moon at 8 p.m. ET.
There are nearly 12 hours between the actual solstice and full moon, a time difference that most recently occurred in 1986, Atlas Obscura pointed out, although the two events took place on different dates. The last time the solstice and the Strawberry Moon occurred at almost the same time was in 1948.
