Starting tonight and into early hours of Tuesday, June 14, Pasadena residents and others throughout California can look to the southeast just after sunset and see a special treat in the heavens – a “large and golden hued” full Moon rising above the horizon, says a description of the phenomenon by Old Farmer’s Almanac.
In areas where the skies are clear, June’s Strawberry Moon will appear at around 4:51 a.m. Pacific Time over California. This June full moon is also known as the full Strawberry Moon, because it comes just as strawberries are starting to ripen.
This full moon is the second of four consecutive supermoons in which the full moon of a month coincides with the moon at or near perigee, its closest point to the Earth in its monthly orbit, according to a Space.com article about the Strawberry Moon.
Strawberry Moon was named for the strawberry harvesting season by the Algonquin Native American tribes in the northeast U.S, the National Weather Service said.
The National Weather Service forecasts “mostly clear” skies early Monday evening in Pasadena. So residents and visitors in Pasadena may have only a slight problem with trying to see the Strawberry Moon.
A supermoon is any full Moon that is at a distance of at least 90-percent of perigee. June’s full Moon stands at 222,238.4 miles away, still within that cut-off point.
If the weather is clear, the whole family can have a Strawberry Moon watching party. And if the weather doesn’t cooperate, this is just the second of four consecutive full moons that qualify as a supermoon.
The next full moons after that will be July 13 and August 11.
For more about the Strawberry Moon, see www.almanac.com/content/full-
