A heavenly sight

Yesterday, Islanders were treated to a spectacular summer night, graced by a Supermoon, also known as the Sturgeon Moon.

It was super last night because, as the Old Farmer’s Almanac tells us: “Supermoon is a catchy term for what astronomers call ‘a perigean full moon,’ which is when the full moon happens at (or very near) the exact time when the moon is closest to us in its orbit.”

It’s the Sturgeon Moon, according to that Old Farmer, because, “The giant sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were most readily caught during this part of summer.”

Other names for August’s full moon come from other Native American people, the Farmer said, such as, “Corn Moon (Algonquin, Ojibwe) … and Ricing Moon (Anishinaabe),  signifying that this is the time to gather maturing crops. Along the same vein, the Assiniboine people named this period Black Cherries Moon, referring to when chokecherries become ripe. The Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest traditionally called this time of the season the Mountain Shadows Moon.”

There you have it. Let’s meet here on August 30-31, when the full moon will be as super as last night’s, but will also be a Blue Moon, since it will be the second full moon within one month, a rarity, as in, “Once in a Blue Moon.”