TEXAS, USA — August's full moon will appear Thursday night at 8:36 p.m. Central Time, which would be 20 minutes after sunset in Austin. It will appear from the southeast at that point.
This will be the last of four supermoons that will take place during 2022, with every month from May through August earning that distinction, as it is a full moon that is at its nearest point toward Earth. This is due to the moon's orbit not being in a perfect circle, which creates these supermoons.
So the question becomes, "how does the Sturgeon Moon get its name?"
Well, the name "Sturgeon Moon" comes from when giant sturgeon were most readily caught in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain along the border of Vermont and upstate New York.
There were once so many of those fish and they made up a vast majority of the diets of the indigenous people who lived in the Great Lakes region. However, overfishing in the 19th and 20th centuries as a result of the commercial fishing industry, as well as pollution from paper mills, caused adverse impacts on the commercial fishing industry.
There are also some instances in which this full moon would be known as the "Harvest Moon" because this is the time of year where maturing crops need to be gathered.
For Thursday night, however, it is possible that the view could be obstructed by cloud cover stemming from scattered storms in the afternoon and evening, which will mainly be hit or miss.
The next supermoon is not scheduled to take place until Aug. 1, 2023, where that month will have two supermoons, with the second taking place on Aug. 31, 2023, which will then be known as the "Super Blue Moon," for a "Blue Moon" is a second full moon in a calendar month.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: