What to know about viewing the Full Buck supermoon
On Monday 3 July an annual lunar event will be visible in the United States as the biggest full moon of the year lights up the night sky.
During the summer months there are fewer hours of true darkness and therefore less opportunity for star-gazers to catch a glimpse of celestial happenings. However this does not mean that astronomy fans will be left disappointed and there is a major lunar event close on the horizon.
On Monday, 3 July we will see the first ‘supermoon’ of the year and one that could be a spectacular event for onlookers.
The display will begin at moonrise on Monday evening and reach peak illumination at 7:39am (ET), just below the horizon. This should be your best chance to witness the spectacle.
You can also watch the Full Buck moon by looking southeast just after sunset on Monday evening.
What is a Full Buck supermoon?
A supermoon is bigger and brighter than a regular full moon and occurs when the moon’s uneven orbit brings it particularly close to the earth. The difference in size is sometimes only about 7%, difficult to discern to the human eye, but it often appears more vibrant than other full moons.
The name ‘Buck Moon’ is taken from the antlers of the male deer, which are also at their largest size around this time of the year. Bucks then shed and regrow their antlers every year, just as the Buck Moon will return in future summers.
This month’s moon is also sometimes known as a Feather Mounting Moon, Salmon Moon, Berry Moon, Raspberry Moon and Month of the Ripe Corn Moon. They all take their names from natural processes that also typically occur during the summer months.
How often does a full moon happen?
The lunar orbit is completed every 29 days, 12 hours 44 minutes and 3 seconds, which is usually rounded to 29.53 days. This means that a full moon – the point in the lunar cycle at which the moon appears largest from the earth – takes place every 29.53 days.
Depending where you are in the world, that exact moment may take place during the daytime in which case it could be difficult to see the moon at its absolute peak. Nevertheless, the night that falls closest to that point is typically considered the full moon.
A full moon takes place roughly once a month, meaning that there are typically 12 full moons in a single year. However 29.53 days is slightly less that the average length of a month, meaning that there are sometimes 13 full moons in a year and two in a single month.
This phenomenon happens once every two or three years and is known as a Blue Moon. This is where the expression ‘once in a blue moon,’ meaning a rare event, comes from.