![]() ![]() Be safe (especially during thunderstorms), avoid starting wars, and take a moment to clear your mind. A good rule to follow is, that if you can hear the thunder, you can be struck by lightning.Īs usual, the wearing of suitably celebratory celestial attire is encouraged in honor of the full moon. Although positive lightning is rare (less than 5% of all lightning strikes), the lack of warning combined with its greater power makes it more lethal. Because it can strike dry areas outside of the storm, positive lightning tends to start more fires than negative lightning. Because it arcs across a greater distance it tends to be 5 to 10 times more powerful than regular ground strikes. Positive lightning can sometimes strike areas where the sky is clear (hence the term “bolt out of the blue”). ![]() Much rarer is positive lightning, which arcs from the top of a thunderstorm to strike the ground up to eight miles away. Most of the lightning that strikes the ground arcs from the negatively charged bottom of the storm to the ground underneath the storm. Since this is also called the Thunder Moon, a quick note on lightning safety. Perigee varies with each orbit, resulting in different publications using different thresholds for deciding which full moons qualify, but all agree that this full moon is indeed a supermoon. Coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, the term “supermoon” refers to either a new or full moon that occurs when the Moon is within 90% of perigee, its closest approach to Earth.īecause we can’t see new supermoons (except when the Moon passes in front of the Sun and causes an eclipse), what has caught the public’s attention are full supermoons, since these are the biggest and brightest full moons of the year. Since the peak of this full moon is less than 10 hours after the Moon was closest to the Earth in its orbit, this will be a supermoon. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls The Buck Supermoon A supermoon occurs when the moon’s orbit is closest (perigee) to Earth at the same time it is full. Dhu al-Hijjah is the month of the Hajj and the Festival of the Sacrifice, and is one of four sacred months during which fighting is forbidden.Īn aircraft taking off from Ronald Reagan National Airport is seen passing in front of a supermoon as it rises on Sunday, December 3, 2017, in Washington. This full moon is in the middle of the sixth month of the Chinese calendar, Tammuz in the Hebrew calendar, and Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th and final month of the Islamic year. In many traditional lunisolar and lunar calendars, full moons fall on or near the middle of the lunar months. ![]() Mead is created by fermenting honey mixed with water, sometimes adding fruits, grains, spices, or hops.įor Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains, this is called the Guru Full Moon (Guru Purnima), celebrated as a time for clearing the mind and honoring the guru or spiritual master.įor Theravada Buddhists, this full moon is known as Asalha Puja, also called Dharma Day or Esala Poya, an important festival celebrating the Buddha’s first sermon.Īs the full moon day of Waso (the fourth month of the traditional Burmese lunisolar calendar), this is the start of the three-month annual Buddhist retreat called Vassa. Europeans called this the Hay Moon for the haymaking in June and July, and sometimes the Mead Moon (although this name was also used for the previous full moon). ![]()
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