According to the calendar of lunar phases this 2023, between Thursday, June 1 and Saturday, June 3, the next full moon will occur.
It will be a lunar phase that will be surrounded by a series of features that will make our natural satellite a real spectacle, both for lovers of astronomy and for anyone who can observe it.
The first thing is that in some countries millions of people will be able to appreciate the bigger moon more than usual.
NASA explains that at this time of year, on the summer solstice, the full moon is low in the sky, especially at higher latitudes, creating an optical illusion that makes the satellite appear much larger, truly gigantic.
Different articles from the American Space Agency say that after so many years, scientists are still not sure why this phenomenon occurs.
At first, astronomers thought that the atmosphere must be expanding near the Moon’s horizon, but cameras have shown that this is not the case. The images observed on the lunar films are of the same size, without elevation. “Apparently only humans see giant moons,” NASA says on its website.
For this reason, some researchers believe that the Moon appears larger because of a phenomenon called the Ponzo illusion.
“In 1913, Mario Ponzo drew two identical chains in converging lines, like the train tracks seen on the right. Above, the yellow bar looks wider, because there seems to be a greater distance between the bars. This is a Ponzo illusion,” explains NASA.
Ponzo’s illusion
According to this theory, mountains, trees and houses can be part of the ponzo line. However, pilots flying at high altitudes sometimes see the same optical illusion without a physical device.
“There are other exposures as well,” says NASA. “But it doesn’t matter what’s true, all you want to do is see the big, beautiful Moon,” he said.
Another phenomenon that some people understand well in this full moon will be the red color that it can take depending on the region where it is seen. This will also be done because of his humility in heaven typical of this time.
This is done by the same circumstances that make our skies blue and our sunsets red. This is a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering.
“Light travels in the form of waves and different colors of light have different physical properties. Blue light has a shorter lifetime and is scattered more easily by particles in the Earth’s atmosphere than red light, which has a longer lifetime,” says NASA.
The US represents the intermediate space because, when the Sun sets, the sunlight must pass through several atmospheres and go further before it reaches the point of view, from which the blue light is scattered, and the light with longer wavelengths, that is, red, orange and yellow; more notable
A full moon with many names
The next full moon is called a Super Classic Moon. The first records of this name date back to the 1930s, when the Maine Farmers’ Almanac began listing names that corresponded to the different lunar years of the American full year.
According to the Almanac, the Algonquian tribes of North America gave it this name because it coincided with the short strawberry harvest in the region.
But, according to NASA, this way the full moon is not only known in the month of June.
In some European countries an old name arose, which transcends and is today heard all over the world: “Honeymoon”, a word that goes back to at least the year MD.
“Some records suggest that the end of June was when the honey was ready for harvest,” explains NASA.
In addition, the tradition of calling the first month of marriage “honeymoon” can be associated with this full moon, due to the custom in some European countries of getting married in June.
Another name for this moon, also of European origin, is the pink moon, because they bloom at this time of the year.
