2022 Strawberry Supermoon Set to Light Up Night Sky on June 14th

Presumed to be the origin of the beloved term "honeymoon," June's supermoon, nicknamed Strawberry Moon, is set to light up the night sky on Tuesday, June 14. The full moon will peak at roughly 8:00 EDT on Tuesday morning and be full and bright on Monday and Wednesday night.

What is a Strawberry Moon?

(Photo: Pedro Figueras by Pexels)

As the supermoon nickname suggests, this full moon coincides with the harvest of strawberries in the summer in North America. Maine Farmer's Almanac, which began publishing Native American names of the moon in the early 1930s, says that the Algonquin tribes in now the northeastern US gave the full moon of June its mouthwatering moniker; modern cultures have since begun to adopt the name, reports LiveScience.

NASA explains that other June moons have also been given nicknames like Honey Moon or Mead Moon, which coincides with the European harvest of honey. Also believed to be the origin of the beloved term "honeymoon," which now has a connotative meaning of a post-wedding vacation.

June's full moon will appear bigger and a bit brighter than usual. This is because it will be the first of two consecutive supermoons that orbit within 90% of their closest proximity to Earth - a point known in astronomy as perigee. Supermoons appear up to 16% brighter in the night sky than the average full moon.

The next supermoon will be on July 13th, dubbed Buck Moon.

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Cycles of the Moon

Full moons occur roughly once a month when the sun, moon, and Earth line up on an invisible 180-degree line. The moon's orbit is roughly five degrees different from our planet; hence, it is usually a bit higher or lower than the planet's shadow, allowing the sun's rays to illuminate the side of the moon facing the Earth.

Typically, the moon has a perigee of two to five lunar cycles, according to the Natural History Museum, London. This means that in a typical year, roughly two to five supermoons light up the night sky in various parts of the planet.

The moon, despite popular belief, does not shine; in fact, it reflects the sunlight. Just like daytime on the planet, sunlight illuminates the moon similarly.

A new moon occurs when the sun's rays hit the far side of the moon, the side we can't see from Earth. However, the sunlight reflects off the moon's nearby side and is called a full moon. During the rest of the month, we on Earth see parts of the daytime side of the moon- its phases.

These eight phases occur in order of new Moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent. The lunar cycle repeats itself every month or roughly every 29.5 days.

Because the "shine" of the moon is dependent on the sun, lunar eclipses occur when Earth comes between the Moon and Sun blocking sunlight from shining on the Moon's surface.