July’s Midsummer Moon

by Sid Baglini

Friday, July 23rd 8:45 pm

The skies seem promising for a walk this week under the Full Buck Moon. The moon will peak at 10:37 pm, but that’s a bit late for our walk. It clears the horizon at 8:36, so we’ll start to walk a bit after that and it should be visible to us 20 to 30 minutes later.

Native Americans provide us with the most common name applied to the moon during the month of July. They observed the rapid growth of antlers on bucks in midsummer, and so named it The Buck Moon. It’s also known as The Full Thunder Moon, a nod to the frequency of violent thunderstorms this time of year.  It is also known as The Salmon Moon, in reference to the return of the fish to the rivers, where they were easily harvested.  The Red Berry Moon, coming a month after The Strawberry Moon, suggested that foraging for lush red fruits continued in July. Similarly, The Ripening Moon and The Hay Moon define what daily life was like for farmers during this time of The Midsummer Moon.

The Moon will have two companions this month, as Jupiter and Saturn will appear to be chasing it across the sky.  With luck, we will get a glimpse of them as well.

We hope you can join us at 8:45 Friday night for a walk with a group of lunar enthusiasts who have informally adopted the name The Moonatics.  

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