Full Strawberry Supermoon: Don't Miss The 'Sweetest Moon Of The Year' This Week

KEY POINTS

The Moon will appear full for three days starting Sunday
June's Full Strawberry Moon is also considered a supermoon
It also has other sweet-sounding names such as "Berries Ripen Moon"

The Full Strawberry Moon will be rising this week. It will also be one of the year's supermoons, so skywatchers may not want to miss the "sweetest Moon of the year."

June's full moon will be on the morning of June 14, at 7:52 a.m. EDT. However, it will be late Monday evening for many other time zones, NASA noted. Regardless of which day and what time the Moon will reach full illumination in your area, however, skywatchers will have a lot of time to enjoy the view of our satellite at its full phase because it will appear full for three days, from Sunday to Wednesday morning.

The month's full moon is also a supermoon, which is the term used to describe full or new moons that are within its closest (90%) approach to Earth. On full supermoons, the Moon is particularly delightful to watch as these are the "biggest and brightest" full moons, according to NASA.

"(D)ifferent publications use different thresholds for deciding which full Moons qualify as a supermoon, but all agree that in 2022 the full moons in June and July both qualify," the agency noted.

Just like all the other full moons, the June full moon has quite a few names, the Old Farmer's Almanac noted. Among the most popular names is the Strawberry Moon, which doesn't really pertain to any particular strawberry-like coloration or quality to the June full moon. Instead, the Native American Algonquin tribes as well as the Ojibwe, Dakota and Lakota people used the name for the June full moon because of the strawberry harvesting season.

Other similarly sweet names are the "Berries Ripen Moon" (Haida), "Blooming Moon" (Anishinaabe) and even the "Honey Moon." The last one is said to be an old European name after writings that suggested the end of June to be the time when honey was ready to be harvested. This made the June moon "the sweetest Moon of the year," NASA noted. This may even be linked to the term "honeymoon," or the period after marriage.

Skywatchers who want to experience watching the full moon rise above the horizon should look toward the southeast just after sunset Tuesday, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac. Those who will miss the Full Strawberry Supermoon, however, can still watch out for yet another supermoon in July, which will be the Full Buck Moon on July 13.