The Nature of Things

This date marks the unusual coinciding of two astronomical phenomena: the summer solstice and the strawberry full moon . Although it has felt like summer for weeks now, the solstice actually arrived this afternoon at 5:34 Central Daylight Time. Temperatures here were above 90 degrees Fahrenheit at the time, but in some places in the Southwest, they were well above 100 already. It looks to be another record-breaking three months of temperatures. For the first time since 1967, the summer solstice came on the same date as the full moon, known this month as the "strawberry moon" according to Algonquin tradition. The tribes gave names to each month's full moon and since June's came at the height of the season when strawberries were harvested, it naturally became the strawberry moon. The moon actually attained 100% fullness this morning at 6:02 our time, almost twelve hours before the summer solstice, but if the skies are clear where you live, you can still enjoy the beauti...

The expression "once in a Blue Moon" refers to an event that is very rare - as rare as having two full moons occur in the same month. That rare event will happen tonight when the second full moon in July will rise over the horizon. Don't expect to see an actual blue moon tonight. It'll be the same beautiful silvery orb that we see every month. An actual blue moon does sometimes occur when there are certain types of dust particles in the air, but such an occurrence is even rarer than...well, than a Blue Moon. There are actually two accepted definitions of a Blue Moon . The one most generally used - the one that I use - is the second full moon within a month. The other definition is that a Blue Moon is the third full moon of a season when four full moons occur in that season. In actuality, that third full moon will generally be the second full moon in a particular month so the first definition seems to make the most sense. If the weather and the clouds cooperate tonig...

Native Americans of what is now the northern and eastern United States historically had special names to identify the full moon of each month of the year. Each of the names was related to an event in Nature that occurred around that time. January, for example, was the Wolf Moon, February the Snow Moon, March the Worm Moon and so on through the year. Tonight marks July's full moon which actually had more than one name, but the most frequently used was Buck Moon. It was called that because this was the month when the new antlers of buck deer normally emerged. But some also referred to it as the Thunder Moon because thunderstorms frequently occurred around this time. Now, August will be a very interesting month for moon watchers like myself because it will feature TWO full moons, the first on August 1 and the second on August 31. The one on August 31 will be the third full moon of the season and is what is referred to as a "Blue Moon."  The "normal" August full ...