Tonight's Full Moon Has a Colorful Name

Tuesday night will be a fine night for moongazing, with the Full Strawberry Supermoon at its brightest, astronomers say. The June full moon gets its name from the strawberry harvesting season it coincides with, not its actual hue, though it will be unusually bright, NPR reports. It will also appear unusually large because it will be near its closest point to the Earth in its orbit, making it the second of four consecutive supermoons. NASA says the moon will appear full from Sunday evening through to Wednesday morning. The best views will be at moonrise and moonset. Local times can be found here.

In a blog post, NASA says the strawberry name comes from the Algonquin tribes of the northeast US, and old European names for the June full moon include the Mead Moon, the Honey Moon, and the Rose Moon. For Hindus, this is Vat Purnima, and for Buddhists, it is Poson Poya. Space.com reports that the Virtual Telescope Project will host a free livesteam of the supermoon rising over the monuments of Rome starting at 3:15pm Eastern Tuesday on YouTube and the project's website. (More supermoon stories.)