February’s full moon, also called a Snow Moon, has peaked, after it was expected at 10.09pm UK time on Sunday, according to the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
Even if you missed it, the moon tends to appear full for a couple of days before it moves into its next phase, the Waning Gibbous, when the lighted side appears to shrink.
According to NASA, this full moon – the second of the year – got its name from tribes in northeast America, because of the heavy snow the season typically gets.
It has also been referred to as the Storm Moon, also for weather-related reasons, or the Hunger Moon, due to the scarcity of food and hard hunting conditions during the month.
There are 12 or 13 full moons each year, which all have different names typically originating from Native Americans, who branded them based on their way of life.
The lunar cycle was an important method of timekeeping for tribes, the names of which were later adopted by Colonial Americans and eventually made popular in modern culture, according to the observatory.
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You can see the full moon with the naked eye. NASA says, however, that if you look at the full moon with binoculars, it will have more details like craters and large mountain ridges.
Using a telescope will make the moon too big to take in at once, it adds, but you’ll see real mountains, valleys, and the cracks in the moon’s surface called rilles, formed from lava.
The Snow Moon is just one of the many names given to each full moon of the year, predominantly by Native Americans.
Here are some of the others, according to the Royal Observatory Greenwich:
January: Wolf Moon
This one is named after the howling of wolves struggling for food in midwinter.
February: Snow Moon
March: Worm Moon
Native Americans named this after the worm trails that would appear in the thawed ground as it warmed up when winter made way for spring.
April: Pink Moon
This one was named after a species of early blooming wildflower.
May: Flower Moon
This refers to the vast blooming seen as spring gets properly under way.
June: Strawberry Moon
This is its North American name, a nod to the harvesting of strawberries in June.
July: Buck Moon
A tribute to male deer, which begin to grow back their antlers in July, having shed them earlier in the year.
August: Sturgeon Moon
Sturgeons, now the most endangered species group on Earth, used to appear in large numbers during August.
September: Full Corn Moon
September is the month crops are gathered following the end of summer.
The Full Corn Moon appears bright and rises early, allowing farmers to continue harvesting into the night.
October: Hunter’s Moon
Like its predecessor, the Hunter’s Moon is bright and long, which gives hunters a rare opportunity to search for prey at night.
Hunters also benefit from deer and fox being unable to hide in fields which lay bare after crops are harvested.
November: Beaver Moon
There is debate over why Native Americans chose this name.
Some believe it came from them setting beaver traps during this month, while others say it comes from many beavers building their winter dams.
December: Cold Moon
A straightforward name for this winter month’s full moon. Others include the Long Night Moon and the Oak Moon.
The Blue Moon
This is where the phrase “once in a blue moon” comes from – because these come about every so often.
The moon completes 12 full cycles of its phases in about 354 days – meaning it’s around 11 days short of a calendar year.
Every two and a half years or so the difference adds up to an extra, 13th full moon occurring during the year, the Observatory says.
We also sometimes refer to a second full moon occurring in one month as a Blue Moon.
Unlike with our typical moon names, we don’t know exactly where this one came from.
