Full Strawberry Blue Moon Seasonally Welcomes 2016 June Solstice

Summary: On Monday, June 20, a full strawberry blue moon seasonally welcomes a June solstice that happens 11 hours 32 minutes after lunar fullness.

June's full strawberry blue moon references June as the month for harvesting strawberries; "strawberry moon" with a strawberry photographed as the moon: Hans Splinter (hans s), CC BY ND 2.0, via Flickr

On Monday, June 20, a full strawberry blue moon, turning full at 11:02 Coordinated Universal Time (7:02 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time), seasonally welcomes the June solstice, an astrological seasonal event occurring at 22:34 UTC (6:34 p.m. EDT), 11 hours 32 minutes after lunar fullness.

A full strawberry blue moon is a full moon occurring in June as the fourth full moon in the same season. The tradition of describing June’s full moon as a strawberry moon harks back to Native Americans, who frequently recognized June as the month for harvesting berries, especially strawberries. For example, the Anishnaabek of the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States and the Sioux of the Great Plains know June’s full moon as ode-imini-giizis (“strawberry moon”). For the Haida of Alaska and British Columbia, June’s full moon is gáan kungáay (“berries ripening moon”). The Lakota Sioux of the Northern Plains, June’s full moon is wipazatkan waste wi (“moon when the berries are good”).

Several definitions account for describing the moon’s fully illuminated, Earth-facing disk as a blue moon. The descriptor may refer to the second full moon within the same month, according to University of Oregon Extension astronomy professor James Hugh Pruett (June 20, 1886-Sept. 25, 1955). Or a blue moon may indicate the third of four full moons within the same quarter, or period of three months.

A seasonal interpretation of a quarter observes astronomical seasons, which are demarcated by an equinox and a solstice. June 2016’s full strawberry blue moon falls within the three-month period, or quarter, beginning with the Sunday, March 20, 2016, equinox and ending with the Monday, June 20, 2016, solstice, according to Coordinated Universal Time. Astronomically, the March equinox opens spring while the June solstice marks summer.

The quarter’s astrological seasonal opener, the March 2016 equinox, occurs Sunday, March 20, at 4:30 UTC (12:30 a.m. EDT). The first of the season’s four full moons reaches fullness 3 days 7 hours 31 minutes later. Fullness happens Wednesday, March 23, at 12:01 UTC (8:01 a.m. EDT).

The second of the season’s four moons turns full Friday, April 22, at 5:24 UTC (1:24 a.m. EDT). The third full moon reaches fullness Saturday, May 21, at 21:14 UTC (5:14 p.m. EDT). The seven seasonal blue moons of the next 19-year lunar cycle occur Saturday, May 18, 2019; Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021; Monday, Aug. 19, 2024; Thursday, May 20, 2027; Friday, Aug. 24, 2029; Saturday, Aug. 21, 2032; Tuesday, May 22, 2035.

Bruce McClure, EarthSky Tonight’s lead writer, notes that seasonal blue moons only occur seven times in 19 calendar years, the cycle of lunar phase recurrences on or near the same calendrical dates.

The 2016 full strawberry blue moon shares the same date with the 2016 June solstice, according to Universal Coordinated Time, the world’s official time standard. But the two events may or may not occur on the same date according to conversions to the world’s 39 local time zones.

For Montevideo, capital city of South America’s Oriental Republic of Uruguay (República Oriental del Uruguay), the two events occur on the same date. Fullness takes place Monday, June 20, at 8:02 a.m. Uruguay Time (UYT). The solstice takes place Monday, June 20, at 7:34 p.m. UYT.

For Nay Pyi Taw, capital city of South East Asia’s Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the two events fall on different dates. Fullness happens Monday, June 20, at 5:32 p.m. Myanmar Time (MMT). The solstice occurs Tuesday, June 21, at 5:04 a.m. MMT.

Local time conversions may produce date separations between 2016’s full strawberry blue moon and June solstice. Yet, different dates do not change the closeness, by only 11 hours 32 minutes, in occurrence between the two astronomical events.

The takeaway for the 2016 full strawberry blue moon’s seasonal welcome of the 2016 June solstice is the close coincidence of a seasonal blue moon with astrological summer’s opener, the June solstice.

visibility area at instant of June 2016's full strawberry blue moon, Monday, June 20, 2016, at 11:02 Coordinated Universal Time (7:02 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time); Earth imagery derived from the NASA Blue Marble Terra/MODIS cloudless Earth and Black Marble night lights images: John Walker, Public Domain, via Fourmilab Switzerland

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

June's full strawberry blue moon references June as the month for harvesting strawberries; "strawberry moon": Hans Splinter (hans s), CC BY ND 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/archeon/19751235/

visibility area at instant of June 2016's full strawberry blue moon, Monday, June 20, 2016, at 11:02 Coordinated Universal Time; Earth imagery derived from the NASA Blue Marble
Terra/MODIS cloudless Earth and Black Marble night lights images: John Walker, Public Domain, via Fourmilab Switzerland @ http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Earth

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