June’s Full Moon Will Look Especially Big Over NJ Skies: Here's Why

Summer nights are made for skygazing, and June’s full strawberry moon offers a chance to celebrate the season in style, weather permitting.

That’s because the moon turns full on Friday, June 21, a day after the summer solstice. It doesn’t happen often that the solstice falls within a day of the full moon — only about once every 19 to 20 years, according to Space.com.

That’s significant. Because the sun reaches its highest point in the sky with the solstice, the moon will appear lower in the sky and look bigger, The Old Farmer’s Almanac reports.

For a gorgeous view of the moon as it rises, look toward the southeast sky just after sunset. It will appear large and golden-hued as it peeks over the horizon. The National Weather Service forecast for Friday calls for a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8 p.m. Then, it's expected to be cloudy, with a low around 70. Chance of precipitation is 30 percent.

The moon reaches full illumination at 9:10 p.m. Eastern Time. The moon will look full for a couple of days after

Although the full strawberry moon will look exceptionally large during moonrise, it’s not a supermoon — a full moon that appears larger than a typical full moon because it is closer to Earth in its elliptical orbit. For that, you’ll have to wait until August, and then you’ll have four chances in a row to see the phenomenon.

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The June full moon is called the strawberry moon because it occurs during the relatively short season for harvesting the sweet, succulent berries. It’s also sometimes called the honey or mead moon, the rose or flower moon, the hot moon, the hoe moon, the planting moon and others, depending on what activity was important to those who bestowed the moniker.

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