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Astronomy: Identifying Full Moons

The planet Mars is not well placed for observation in February and March 1994 (although it is paired closely with Saturn on March 14). But our "Sky Calendar" (right) shows some of the sky sights you may wish to look for. While it doesn't show the full moons occurring during these months, the "Almanac Table" mentions several of the moons by their wonderfully evocative names.

February's full moons, Snow Moon and Hunger Moon, come straight from the Algonquins. In colonial times these native American tribes once roamed the region from present-day New England to Lake Superior. Then, when the first European colonists came to the northeastern part of the New World, they brought their own names for some of the full moons of the year. However, they were so struck by the names that Algonquin tribes had assigned that they incorporated them into their own list. While other tribes of North America had their own names for the moon-which you can look up in Kim Long's The Moon Book (Johnson Books; 1988)-it is those of the Algonquins that have been preserved by Old Farmer's Almanac right up to the present.

Diagrams for dusk and dawn show scenes about 45 minutes after sunset or before sunrise, as viewed from 40° north latitude (approximately correct for the U.S. and southern Canada). -Adapted from Sky Calendar, Abrams Planetarium, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824.

For Native Americans these special names not only applied to the full moon itself, but to the entire month that the moon marked. With this comes a complication: the period from full moon to full-moon is only about 29f days, so it's possible every few years to have 13 full moons in one calendar year. We can preserve the beautiful system of naming each full moon by using one of the alternate names when there are two per month. (For instance, if there are two full moons in March, name one Worm Moon and the other Crow or Sap Moon.)

Currently, the two full moon names on which almost everyone agrees are Harvest Moon and Hunter's Moon, the full moons of September and October. Harvest Moon should be regarded as the full moon occurring nearest to the start of autumn which means that it can sometimes take place in early October. Hunter's Moon should always be the next full moon after Harvest Moon.

Weather

Snow's Strange Cousin
Once, in Binghamton, New York, I looked out the window and was amazed to see that three or four inches of new snow had gathered on the ground in the past hour and a half. But when I walked outside I discovered that what was falling was not snow. Or sleet. Or hail. And it was certainly not rain.

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