2020 Flower Moon

Sky watchers had quite a view on May 7th with the full moon of May. It has many other names such as the “Full Flower Moon,” “Supermoon,” and more. In Ancient times, it was common to track the days using the Lunar month rather than Solar year. In today’s world, we use those Ancient month names as full moon names.

Even though this particular moon does not in any way look like a flower, it gets that title due to it being in the season time of flowers blooming in the month of May. It also gets the title, “Supermoon” because of the orbit point of perigee (when the moon is closest to the Earth). Various astronomers believe that the Supermoon title is not an accurate one since astronomers disagree on how closely a full moon has to coincide with perigee to have that name/title. Others also like to call this moon the “Frog Moon” since frogs become more active during this time in North America.

During this point and time of the full moon phase, the moon is brighter and larger. It is larger by fourteen percent and brighter by thirty percent. Because of this, many people love to sky watch, stargaze and take wonderful photos. It would be even better for those who have a telescope since it’s already larger and brighter, making it so they would really be able to soak in the details.

No matter the title, it’s a fun and exciting site to see. This full moon does not occur often, or even every month since the moon’s orbit changes orientation as the Earth goes around the sun. On average, Supermoons occur about every four hundred and fourteen days. So make sure to mark the next full moon on your calendar and not forget about it so you too can see it’s wonderful beauty!