Now that we finally have observed all the stars of Aquila, I had hoped to share its deep-sky objects but we’ll need to come back to it since December’s full moon is already fast approaching and it will be far easier to see between clouds. The moon is in its waxing gibbous phase, which is the phase right before it’s full.
It will be officially full at 8:08 p.m. Wednesday, for those of us in San Mateo. However, it will appear full to us Tuesday, too. On both Tuesday and Wednesday, the moon will rise before the sunsets so it will be really hard not to notice it.
December brings the full Cold Moon, which of course describes winter. This is the name used by the Mohawk Indians, who live in Canada, primarily around Lake Ontario. Another full moon name that describes the season is Drift Clearing Moon used by the Cree, North American indigenous people who primarily live in Canada.
Drift clearing describes how snow looks in the winter. Other names used by the Cree were Frost Exploding Trees Moon and Hoar Frost Moon. Moon of the Popping Trees is what the Oglala, a sub-tribe of the Lakota, Native Americans who originally populated all of the Rocky Mountain ranges but were pushed out to Missouri and South Dakota, used for the season.
The Cherokee, Native Americans of the south, and the Haida, an indigenous group of British Columbia, both called it the Snow Moon. And the Mohicans, Native Americans of New York, called it the Long Night Moon.
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I’ve received news notifications that we’ll be treated to the first of five new supermoons. What I missed was the word “new” in the headline. This means that this supermoon takes place during the new moon phase. Unfortunately, that’s the phase when we’re not able to see the moon. In addition, it didn’t start this month. It started last month.
It’s also worth noting that a large meteor shower starts Sunday and goes until Dec. 17. This is the Geminid meteor shower and is rated at 120 meteors per hour during its peak.
Obviously with the full moon, viewing conditions aren’t ideal but it peaks Dec. 14 so conditions will be far better by then. Then we won’t have to stay up so late to look for meteors. The radiant point of this meteor shower, the constellation of Gemini, rises just after 6 p.m. Dec. 14 and the moon rises at 10:55 p.m.
Gemini will reach its highest point at around 2 a.m. Because the moon will be out then, your best will be to look for “shooting stars” before the moon rises.
Look Up appears in the weekend edition. If you have any astronomical questions or facts you’d like to share email news@smdailyjournal.com with the subject line “Look Up.”
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
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Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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