The next full moon of the year is set to hit this week, and it’ll fill the night sky as the Strawberry Moon. This lunar phenomenon is named for the relatively short season in which you can harvest strawberries. The Moon is expected to appear opposite the Sun at 9:08 p.m. EDT on June 21, 2024, making this Friday night an exciting night for skywatchers in the US and elsewhere.
June’s full moon is also known as the Flower Moon, the Hot Moon, the Hoe Moon, or the Planting Moon. It’s also been called the Mead or Honey Moon, and even the Rose Moon, Vat Purnima, Poson Poya, and the LRO Moon, NASA says. All of these names are less well known than the Native American name, which we’ve come to use since the Maine Farmer’s Almanac began publishing native names for the full Moons in the 1930s.
The Strawberry Moon will come just one day after the longest day of summer, as the summer solstice is set to take place on Thursday, June 20. Twilight is expected to begin at 4:30 a.m., with sunrise coming at 5:43 a.m.. Later in the evening, the sun will set at 8:37 p.m. EDT, and evening twilight will come to a close at 9:49 p.m. EDT. It’ll be just 1.2 seconds shorter than daylight was on the previous day.
The full moon will appear in the sky for almost three days, though it will only be completely full on Friday, June 21. But, if the weather doesn’t permit—or if you just can’t get outside that night—you’ll still be able to enjoy the beauty of this moon before the phases continue into the rest of the month.
Unfortunately, the 2024 Strawberry Moon won’t be a Supermoon, so it won’t appear larger than normal. Still, it should be a beautiful sight that skywatchers will want to take advantage of before it’s gone.
