Don’t Miss the Last Supermoon of the Year
If you’ve been too busy for the past four months to see a supermoon, you can still make it to the last one this year. On August 11th, if you have a moment to look at the sky, you can see the full Sturgeon Moon. The full moon in August peaks at 9:36 pm on the East Coast. It will be in the southeastern part of the sky, but you won’t be able to miss it.
As a bonus, if you stay up until midnight on the 11th, you will be able to see the Moon within four degrees of Saturn. You should be able to see the ringed planet directly below the Moon with the naked eye, but binoculars or a telescope will enhance the experience. You will also be able to see the Perseid meteor shower, but the full moon will be too bright to see all but the largest meteors.
After all, what is a supermoon?
A supermoon is a full moon that occurs when the moon is relatively close to the earth, at the perigee of its orbit. Because it’s closer, it looks a little brighter and a little bigger than a non-supermoon.
Names of the August full moons: Sturgeon Moon, Hungry Ghost Moon and others.
There are many informal names for the moon of each month, as there are many cultures that use/have used lunar calendars. Among the names we use for the August moon in the United States is Sturgeon Moon. According to the Old Farmers’ Almanac, the name comes from the fact that “the giant sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain was most readily caught during this part of the summer.”
Other contenders for the August moon name include “Flying Moon” from the Crees, “Corn Moon” favored by the Algonquian and Ojibwe peoples, and “Cherry Moon” from the Assiniboine people. However, my favorite name for this moon comes from China, where the seventh moon of the year is called the Hungry Ghost Moon.
Ghost Festival: When the Dead Walk the Earth
Celebrated throughout the month in China and nearby countries, the Ghost Festival reaches its peak on August 12 at the full moon. It’s a bit like Halloween or Dias de Las Muertos, a time when the barrier between the living and the dead thins and the spirits of the dead roam the earth looking for food, entertainment and trouble.
The work of the living is to propitiate the dead by laying out some food for them, burning incense and amulet paper, and leaving the front rows open for the ghosts in the performances. Memorable spirits tend to be cool, but stray spirits can be mischievous and/or bloodthirsty, so don’t go swimming during the Hungry Ghost Festival . If you do, the spirits of the dead may drag you to the bottom of the lake, and next year you’ll be wandering around looking for free food and a front row seat.