The full moon of June, also called the Strawberry moon, will occur on June 21 at 9:08 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (0108 GMT June 22). Observers in Oceania will see a nearly-full moon pass in front of the star Antares, (Alpha Scorpii) the brightest star in Scorpius, the Scorpion, on June 20.
In New York City moonrise is at 8:49 p.m. EDT on June 21, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. The sun sets at 8:31 p.m. on that day. This full moon happens on the day after the summer solstice, the longest day of the year; full moons occur within a day of the solstices about every 19 to 20 years. There's some dispute about what counts as "on the solstice" – it depends on how close in time one wants to them to be. For example, the summer solstice in 2024 is counted as occurring at 4:05 p.m. EDT (2005 GMT) on June 20, and the full moon is a little more than 30 hours later.
The moon will pass in front of – or occult – the red supergiant star Antares the day before the full moon, but the event won't be visible from New York. North American skywatchers will see a very close pass of the moon just to the south of ("below") Antares.
Related: What is the moon phase today? Lunar phases 2023
Looking for a telescope to see the full moon up close? We recommend the Celestron Astro Fi 102 as the top pick in our best beginner's telescope guide.
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A full moon is when the moon is opposite the sun with Earth between them. During full moons, we see a fully-illuminated moon on the night side of Earth. The exact moments of full moons are calculated relative to the positions of the moon and Earth; the timing of a full moon is the same all over the world, the differences are solely due to one's time zone. While the moon turns full at 9:08 p.m. in New York, for a London-based sky the full moon occurs at 1:08 a.m. the next day, and a Japan-based observer would see it happen at 9:08 a.m.
While many around the world will only see a close pass to Antares, those located in a swath of the Pacific Ocean will see the moon pass in front of the star, the brightest in Scorpius the Scorpion. One of the larger cities the occultation will be visible in is Port Moresby, in Papua New Guinea, where one will see the moon touch Antares June 21 at 8:10 p.m. local time, according to In-the-sky.org, and Antares will emerge from behind the moon at 8:34 p.m.
Other places one can see the occultation from include Suva, in Fiji, where Antares passes behind the moon June 21 at 11:04 p.m. local time, emerging at 12:21 a.m. June 22.
Unlike lunar phases, spotting occultations is affected by one's location. In the case of occultations by the moon, our satellite is close enough that moving from one part of the Earth's surface to another can alter the moon's apparent position against the background stars by up to two degrees. So an observer in Honolulu, which is further north than Fiji or the Solomon Islands, will see the moon pass just to the south of Antares, in close conjunction at about 1:33 a.m. June 21; the moon will pass about 0.3 degrees south of the star, less than a single lunar diameter (the moon is so bright that Antares can be hard to spot so close by).
Other regions will be on the day side of Earth, so the moon won't have risen yet or will have set already when the occultation occurs.
Visible Planets
In addition to the lunar occultation of Antares, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter will also be visible in predawn skies on the night of the June full moon; Mercury, Venus and Jupiter will be largely lost in the sunlight for people in mid-northern latitudes.
Saturn is the first to come up – the planet rises at 12:34 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on June 22 in New York City. Mars follows at 1:31 a.m. Saturn will be in the constellation Aquarius, and as it is relatively bright it will stand out against Aquarius' fainter stars – in many city locations Aquarius is barely visible, so Saturn looks like the only bright "star" in that part of the southeastern sky.
Mars is recognizable by its red-orange color, and the planet is in Pisces, another group of stars that is mostly fainter. By about 3:30 a.m. Mars will appear to be about 10 degrees above the eastern horizon to the left of Saturn, which is in the southeast about 30 degrees high.
Jupiter rises just before dawn, at 3:51 a.m. EDT, and in New York sunrise is at 5:25 a.m. local time on June 22. By about 5 a.m. Jupiter will be 10 degrees above the east-northeastern horizon, and the sky is getting light. Jupiter, Mars and Saturn will form a line that makes about a 45 degree angle to the horizon, with Mars at 27 degrees and Saturn at 40 degrees in the southeast. A fun exercise is to see how close to sunrise one can still spot all three planets.
For both the planets and the sun, rising times will be similar in other mid-northern latitude locations such as Chicago, Sacramento, or Denver.
For those watching the sky from south of the Equator, Saturn and Mars will appear higher in the sky by the time the sun comes up, because June 20 is the winter solstice there; it is the longest night of the year.
Another effect on planetary observing is the angle the ecliptic – the projection of the Earth's orbit on the sky and the apparent path of the sun against the background stars – makes with the horizon. Planets hug the ecliptic – none of them moves more than a few degrees from it (Mercury's orbit has the highest inclination to the ecliptic plane, at about 7 degrees).
From a mid-southern latitude location such as Melbourne, Australia (where the full moon is at 11:08 a.m. local time on June 22) sunset is early, at 5:08 p.m. and the full moon rises at 4:58 p.m. Saturn rises at 11:17 p.m., followed by Mars at 3:27 a.m. June 23, and Jupiter – which is nearly lost in the sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere --rises at 5:38 a.m. From Melbourne by about 6:30 a.m. The three planets will form a rough line from Jupiter in the northeast to Saturn in the north. As the sun rises later –7:36 a.m. on June 23 – by the time the sky is getting light Saturn has moved into the west and is more than halfway (about 55 degrees high) to the zenith.
Constellations
Among stars, by 9:30 p.m. in the mid-northern latitudes, one will see Vega, or Alpha Lyrae, in the northeast. Vega is one of the corners of the Summer Triangle, consisting of Vega, Deneb and Altair. Vega, being the easternmost and one of the brighter stars, will be one of the first to become visible as the sky darkens. Turning to the left of Vega – northwards – and towards the horizon one will see Deneb, the tail of Cygnus the Swan. Turn to the right (southwards) and one sees Altair, the "eye" of Aquila the Eagle. The three stars form an approximate right triangle with the right angle at Deneb.
Turn left of Deneb and you are facing north; the Big Dipper will be high in the sky (more than halfway to the zenith) on the left, it will appear almost vertical. One can use the "pointers" of the Dipper's handle to find Polaris, the Pole star, and if one continues towards the horizon one touches the "W" shape of Cassiopeia, the Queen.
One can use the handle of the Big Dipper to "Arc to Arcturus", the brightest star in Boōtes, the Herdsman. Arcturus is recognizable because it looks slightly reddish or orange and the fact that it is very high in the sky on summer evenings. Drawing a line between Vega and Arcturus crosses two constellations: closer to Boötes is Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown; it is a bright circlet of stars that can be seen even from light polluted locales. As one moves towards Vega one encounters a group of four medium-bright stars in a square, which is the "keystone" – the center of the constellation Hercules.
Continuing the "arc" from Arcturus ends up at Spica, the alpha star of Virgo, and turning to the right (towards the south) one sees Leo, the Lion. To the left is Scorpius, the Scorpion and its bright star Antares; the full moon will be to the left of it and close to the horizon by 9:30 p.m.
In the mid-southern latitudes, the sky will be dark by 7 p.m. and one will see the moon in the east, with Antares (if one isn't in the zone where the occultation is visible) above it and to the left. Looking north (leftwards) one will see Arcturus rising, and Spica above and slightly to the left of it – Spica will be about two thirds of the way to the zenith. Turning around to face southward one can spot two bright stars that are close together at about the same altitude as Spica; the upper one is Hadar and the lower is Rigil Kentaurus, or Alpha Centauri. If one draws a line between the two and goes right, one hits the Southern Cross.
Turning further to the right, (southwest), one will spot a bright star much closer to the horizon. This is Canopus, or Alpha Carinae, the brightest star in the Keel, one of the three constellations that makes up Argo, the legendary ship of Jason. Once Argo was a single large constellation; but more modern astronomers have divided it into three: Carina the Keel, Puppis the Poop Deck, and Vela the Sail. The latter can be seen as a large ring or ellipse of medium-bright stars above Canopus, while Puppis is to the right of Canopus.
How the Strawberry Moon got its name
In the Old Farmer's Almanac, the full moon of June is called a Strawberry moon, from the berries that appear in the summer months in the northeastern parts of North America. But the "traditional" names in the Almanac for full moons are a mix of terms from European settlers and local Native peoples; many are specific to Algonquin-speaking groups that inhabited the northeastern part of the continent as they were the first that Europeans (specifically the English, French and Dutch) encountered.
For example, the term Strawberry moon is also used by the Ojibwe people, whose traditional lands were in the northern plains and the Great Lakes region. But the Woodland Cree, who live in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, call the June lunation Opiniyawiwipisim, or Egg Laying moon, as that is when waterfowl in the region lay their eggs.
In the Chinese lunar calendar the June full moon is in the fifth month, called Púyuè, the Sweet Sedge Month.
According to the Venerable Bede, the English method of reckoning months in the early Christian era used the lunar months, and the June lunation was called Litha, which shared the name with the following one in July. In years that required an extra month, to keep in line with the seasons, a third month was called Litha as well.
In the Southern Hemisphere, the Māori described the lunar month of Hongonui, which occurs from June to July, as "Man is now extremely cold and kindles fires before which he basks" according to the Encyclopedia of New Zealand – June being the middle of the austral winter.
Editor's note: If you snap an image of the full Strawberry Moon and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
