When We Can See the Beautiful and Unique Strawberry Moon in Minnesota

I don't know much about space, but it's pretty amazing and it's always so pretty to see some of the phenomena that take place in our Minnesota skies. Like when I was finally able to see the Northern Lights for the first time at the beginning of May!

As far as I know, the Northern Lights aren't predicted to be in the skies this weekend, but something else pretty cool will be and it's called the Strawberry Moon.

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Why this Strawberry Moon is so Unique

Strawberry Moons happen every year, but this one in particular is quite unique, and that's because of when the Strawberry Moon will hit our skies.

The Old Farmers Almanac writes that the Strawberry Moon is typically the full moon between spring and summer. (We'll get into more specifics on why it's called the Strawberry Moon in a moment.) This year, though, it lands directly on the Summer Solstice.

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When the Summer Solstice comes, that's our longest day of the year. The day with the longest amount of sunlight. It's when the sun is at its highest point of the year. But that means its opposite, the moon, is at its lowest point.

This means that the moon won't rise very far off the horizon and when that happens the moon appears to be massive. And since it's a full moon it's going to look EXTRA big. The Old Farmers Almanac says that it'll be the biggest-looking moon in years.

Why It's Called the Strawberry Moon

But why is it called the Strawberry Moon? While the moon will have a really cool pink-ish, red-ish hue because of how low it will be on the horizon, that's not the reason for the name.

The Old Farmer's Almanac writes that the name comes from Native American Algonquian tribes like the Ojibwe, Dakota, and Lakota peoples "to mark the ripening of 'June-bearing' strawberries that are ready to be gathered."

"As flowers bloom and early fruit ripens, June is a time of great abundance for many."

So there are a lot of cool reasons to take a peek at the night sky when the Strawberry Moon rises, which will be on Friday, June 21st. The meaning behind it is really cool plus it's going to look sweet with the pink-ish, red-ish look, with it being so close to the horizon, and with it looking massive. Definitely worthy of some pictures!

The peak illumination time for the Strawberry Moon will be at 8:10 PM but the highest it will be in the sky is around 1 AM, which still won't be very far off the horizon.