Hunger Moon tonight! Why the 24 February Full Moon is also called Snow Moon, micromoon

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ALSO READ: Cold Moon 2023: What is it and when to see the last full Space.com explained that most of the time, the Moon is illuminated by the sun's light. "Once in a while, the moon's orbit carries it within the shadow of Earth.

February's full moon will miss the Earth's shadow, because the moon's orbit is tilted by five degrees to the plane of the Earth's orbit, and therefore Earth won't be directly between the sun and the moon," the report said. ALSO READ: Christmas Cold Moon 2023: When and where to see the last full of the year The full moon on February 24 is called a "minimoon" or "micromoon" since "this is a little over a day before apogee (when the Moon is at its farthest from the Earth for this orbit) this is a micromoon, the opposite of a supermoon", the NASA said.

ALSO READ: Why is this full moon called Strawberry moon? Here are some other names you should know The orgin of its name as "Snow Moon" dates back to 1930s when Maine Farmers' Almanac began publishing "Indian" names for full Moons. According to this almanac, as the full Moon in February the tribes of the northeastern US called this the Snow or Storm Moon because of the heavy snows in this season.

"Bad weather and heavy snowstorms made hunting difficult, so this Moon was also called the Hunger Moon," the NASA said. ALSO READ: Supermoon: The largest and brightest moon of 2023 Some also list the Wolf Moon as an old European name for this full Moon.