February: Snow MoonĪlthough some referred to January’s full moon as Snow Moon, the name tended to be applied in February, when the snow was deepest and heaviest. The full moon would usually appear during the coldest part of winter, when wolves would often run around in packs looking for food. January's Wolf Moon is always the first full moon of the year. These names were first published in the Maine Farmers' Almanac starting in the 1930s, followed by the Farmers' Almanac, and later became considered part of American tradition and folklore. More recently, the Algonquin people indigenous to what is now part of the United States, particularly the region between New England and Lake Superior, named full moons after seasonal changes in the natural enviroment. The naming of full moons dates back to ancient Rome, and names were often associated with calendar months. Happening approximately once a month as part of the lunar phase, a full moon is a phenonema that occurs when the Earth is between the Moon and Sun. "Astro" Bob King is a freelance writer for the Duluth News Tribune.A full moon occurs when the moon looks completely illuminated when observed from Earth. Both include nicely detailed maps of the lunar landscape. (free) for iPhone and Lunar Map HD for Android. Two much larger craters - Stofler (78 miles, 126 km) and Maurolycus (71 miles, 114 km) - lie a short distance above or north of the face.Īs in the sky, once you find an anchor site on the moon, you can work your way from there to other lunar features and come to know the moon better. Use a magnification around 60-100x and look for Mickey a short distance up (north) from the bottom (south end) of the moon. You'll need a small scope for this, around 3-inches (80mm) should do. Or you can wait until October 10-12 when the waxing, evening moon carries them back into view again. 14) and tomorrow night before the glare and lack of shading makes the triplet difficult to discern. You'll be able to see the face tonight (Sept. What makes the Mickey face work is that all three craters overlap to some degree, so they fit together to create a striking pattern. You can better see the overlaps and the craters' partially eroded walls. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this photo of Mickey Mouse from orbit. If you increase the magnification of your telescope a little, you'll see that a ridge runs along Heraclitus's shallow floor. That tells us that Heraclitus formed first, followed some time later by Licetus. If you look closely you can can see that Cuvier abuts Heraclitus while Licetus actually overlaps and cuts into its northern edge. Greek philosopher, is a more complex crater 56 miles (90 km) in diameter with an odd, elongated shape. Heraclitus, named for the 6th-century B.C. Yes, there is erosion on the moon! The steady bombardment of micrometeorites and the solar wind slowly grind and smooth the sharp edges off lunar features over the course of millions of years. Their worn-down rims tell us they're ancient, having formed in separate impacts sometime between 3.9 and 4.6 billion years ago. Contributed / Bob Kingīoth Licetus and Cuvier are 47 miles (75 km) in diameter and 2.4 miles (3.8 km) deep. In this closer look, you can clearly see the ears and face made by the overlapping craters Licetus, Cuvier and Heraclitus.
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