Summer has arrived! Or at least it will on June 20.
Around noon on that Thursday, the sun will reach the year’s highest point in the midday sky and begin its gradual trek southward until it reaches its lowest point on Dec. 21.
The actual summer solstice occurs at 1:51 p.m. PDT Thursday.
For skywatchers in the southern hemisphere, of course, everything is reversed, so they’ll see the sun at its lowest, marking their first day of winter.
Once the sun sets this week, you’ll see a very bright moon. On Friday, June 21, the full moon will rise in the southeast just as the sun sets in the northwest.
Every full moon of the year has a name given to it by Native Americans; the June full moon is known as the “Strawberry moon,” many think because it has a pink hue but, folks, if you ever see a pink moon … well, I don’t know what to tell you!
No, it’s known as the “Strawberry moon” because strawberries are in season and ready for harvest in June.
So, while the moon won’t appear pink (or even red), it can appear quite orange as it rises over the horizon. That distinctive orange color originates from the Earth’s atmosphere.
If you recall from your elementary school days, the moon reflects sunlight to our eyes, and the white sunlight is composed of all colors of the spectrum squeezed together to give the appearance of white light.
When the moon is low in the sky, its light is passing through about six times more air than when it’s overhead.
This thick, dust-filled air scatters the bluish light from the moon’s spectrum and leaves only warmer colors such as yellow, orange and red to shine through.
The more particulate matter (such as dust, smog or volcanic ash) in the air, the deeper orange the moon will appear.
Once the Earth rotates enough for the moon to appear higher in the sky, however, its light will pass through less atmosphere, and the moon will appear a more “normal,” yellowish-white color.
If you watch the moon rise around sunset on the 21st, you’ll also notice how immense it appears.
If you believe the atmosphere somehow acts like a lens and magnifies the moon, you’re in good company, because it was Alexandrian mathematician and astronomer Claudius Ptolemy who first suggested it.
Unfortunately, this is as wrong now as it was two millennia ago!
No, believe it or not, the moon’s apparently large size originates not from the atmosphere but from right between our ears. That’s right, it’s a weird optical illusion created by our brains!
To demonstrate this “moon illusion,” make a loose fist and hold it up to your eye. Now view the rising, “large” moon through it, using your fist to block out all but the moon itself. The moon will appear to shrink.
Now try blinking your eyes back and forth, looking through — then around — your loose fist, and watch as the moon grows and shrinks!
Any way we look at it, it’s quite an illusion!
