June's full 'Strawberry Moon' lit up the night sky last night, treating skywatchers to a rare once-in-a-18-year display as it rode low across the southern horizon.
Skywatchers were served the lowest full moon in almost two decades, thanks in part to a quirk of orbital mechanics known to astronomers as a "major lunar standstill". This phenomenon occurs over a two-year period when the moon's tilted orbit is at its greatest inclination relative to our planet's celestial equator (which is essentially Earth's normal equator projected out into space).
