Full Strawberry Moon rises tonight — here’s how and when to watch

Stargazers are berry excited.

The highly anticipated Strawberry Moon is slated to rise on June 29, marking the first full moon to grace the sky this summer.

This spectacle will peak around 7:57 Eastern Time, when our rocky satellite will pass opposite the Sun, glowing as brightly as it gets illuminated by the Sun’s rays, according to Space.com.

As this phenomenon occurs right after the summer solstice, the lunar body will hang low in the Northern Hemisphere, making it seem larger and more colorful than normal due to an optical illusion created by its proximity to the horizon.

“When it spends more of that time in that lower portion of the sky, you’re looking through more of Earth’s atmosphere, which makes these moons generally look redder and more golden. And also, they appear bigger,” Dr. Tyler Richey-Yowell, a postdoctoral fellow at Arizona’s Lowell Observatory, told FOX Weather. 

These outsized proportions are despite the Strawberry Moon actually being one of the year’s smallest moons.

Why the low-hanging fruit, so to speak? Since full moons always sit opposite the sun in Earth’s sky, the lunar satellite will reflect the solar star’s winter trajectory, sweeping low across the Southern Horizon all night, according to Forbes. The opposite effect will occur in the Southern Hemisphere, where the moon will appear high and mark the first full moon of winter.

Berry misleading

Coincidentally, “Strawberry” is actually a bit of a misnomer.

The moon takes its name not from its color — although it can glow reddish-orange when it initially rises — but rather because its peak coincided with the start of its namesake fruit’s harvest among indigenous tribes such as the Algonquin.

Other native American monikers included the Berries Ripen Moon, Green Corn Moon and Hot Moon while the Europeans dubbed it the Honey Moon or the Mead Moon.

How to see

The Strawberry moon will be most visible in NY during moonrise at around 8:48pm.

For optimal viewing, lunar oglers are advised to head to an elevated vantage point, coastline or other spot with a clear view of the Southeastern Horizon.

Meanwhile, the spectacle can be captured with either a DSLR camera with a telephoto lens, or a plain old smartphone camera, especially one equipped with a bespoke astronomy function, Space.com reports.

Watchers can use a smartphone stargazing app to pinpoint the exact spot on the horizon where the Strawberry Moon will ascend.

Those who don’t catch this phenomenon will have to wait for the next full moon — the Buck Moon — on July 29