A spectacular full moon is in store for sky watchers Wednesday night, when a phenomenon known as a buck moon shines down from the heavens.
In the 1930s, the Maine Farmer’s Almanac began publishing the names Native American gave full moons. According to the almanac, the Algonquin tribes of the Northeast called it the buck moon because it coincided with the annual emergence of new antlers on male deer.
“You remember the harvest moon? It was called that because the farmers had extra sunlight because of how bright the moon was so they had more time to harvest their crops,” Victor de los Santos, executive director of the South Texas Astronomical Society, said Tuesday.
“Every full moon now does have a unique name. There is significance behind it which is now being emphasized, which is really awesome,” he added. “There something called archeo-astronomy, which is the way that our ancestors used astronomy and used the stars back when they didn’t have calendars and watches and iPhones and everything.”
Wednesday evening, sunset is at 8:26 p.m. and the moon should eventually be visible at 5 degrees above the southeastern horizon.
Since the peak of Wednesday’s full moon is less than 10 hours after the moon passed closest to Earth’s orbit, this is also going to be a supermoon, a term invented by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979. It refers to either a new or full moon which occurs when the moon is within 90 percent of perigee, its closest approach to earth, according to NASA.
Supermoons are the biggest and brightest full moons of the year. The one Wednesday night is going to be the brightest of them all.
If you miss the moon Wednesday night, don’t despair. The show will continue for the next two or three days, although the moon will diminish slightly in size each night.
