JACKSON, Wyo. — The next full moon will rise over Jackson Hole tomorrow, Aug. 11 at 8:57 p.m.
The full moons this summer have appeared big and bright. May, June and July’s full moons were also supermoons and tomorrow’s full moon rounds out the supermoon streak for the summer.
To be a supermoon the moon is less than 360,000 kilometers (ca. 223,694 miles) from the center of Earth.
August’s full moon will have plenty of viewing opportunities, the moon will be above 90% illumination, appearing full, Aug. 9-14, giving us ample opportunities to catch a moonrise. According to NASA, Saturn will also appear near the moon, during this phase and will appear brightest for the year in mid-August.
August’s full moon has been referred to as the Sturgis Moon because the giant sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were most readily caught during this part of summer, says the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Sturgeon fish have been traced back to around 136 million years ago but are quite rare today due to overfishing in the 19th century.
The Cree call the August full moon, the “Flying Up Moon”, which describing the time when young birds are finally ready to take the leap and learn to fly.
Other names include the “Corn Moon” (Algonquin, Ojibwe), the “Harvest Moon” (Dakota), the “Ricing Moon” (Anishinaabe) and the “Black Cherries Moon” (Assiniboine).
According to Old Farmer’s Almanac, these names signify that this is the time to gather maturing crops or harvest wild fruits that have ripened.
The Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest traditionally called this time of the season the “Mountain Shadows Moon.”
