Starship Asterisk*

A January Wolf Moon

Explanation: Did you see the full moon last month? During every month, on average, a full moon occurs in the skies over planet Earth. This is because the Moon takes a month to complete another orbit around our home planet, goes through all of its phases, and once again has its entire Earth-facing half lit by reflected sunlight. Many indigenous cultures give each full moon a name, and this past full moon's names include the Ice Moon, the Stay at Home Moon, and the Quiet Moon. Occurring in January on the modern western calendar, several cultures have also named the most recent full moon the Wolf Moon, in honor of the famous howling animal. Featured here above the Italian Alps mountains, this past Wolf Moon was captured in combined long and short exposure images. The image is striking because, to some, the surrounding clouds appear as a wolf's mouth ready to swallow the Wolf Moon, while others see the Moon as a wolf's eye.

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Just HOW is this a "Wolf" moon?
There are no wolves on the island where I live, and few in Europe, and anyway the animals couldn't give a F&^*&^ about it!

It's beautiful picture of a full moon! Why bring in all the false folkways?
JOhn

JohnD wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 9:39 am Just HOW is this a "Wolf" moon?
There are no wolves on the island where I live, and few in Europe, and anyway the animals couldn't give a F&^*&^ about it!

It's beautiful picture of a full moon! Why bring in all the false folkways?
JOhn

Indeed. There seems to be a bit of a trend for giving every occurrence of a full Moon a particular name, usually something to do with Western, Northern Hemisphere experience or folklore.

Regarding wolves and full Moons, I do wonder what happens to lycanthropes during a total lunar eclipse, but probably this is not the forum for that question.

The Moons were named after what was going on in the tribal territories that groups wandered around in at the time; reflections of the local ecologically or culturally significant events for that time of year. For instance, the January Moon for the Osages who lived in my area was called "Frost on the Inside of the Lodge Moon" or "Moon Stands Alone Moon," both accurate depictions of what it is like in northeast Kansas this time of year. I find the Osage names of for the Moons WAY more relevant to this part of the world than the garbage names for the months (a word that is a derivation of the word Moon) that we inherited from the Romans. To continue through the year: Light of Day Returns Moon (Feb), Just Doing That Moon (a very apt description of the weather in March), Planting Moon (April), Little Flower Killer Moon (the small early spring flowers are replaced by taller flowers that keep up with the taller grasses competing for sunlight in May), Buffalo Pawing Earth Moon (June Buffalo bulls challenging each other season), Buffalo Mating Moon (after the results of the previous month's battles), Yellow Flower Moon (Aug.), Deer hiding moon (bucks growing their antlers), Deer matign moon(Oct.), Coon breeding moon (Nov.) and Baby bear moon (Dec.).

Since each part of the planet has different things going on in nature, the Moons had different names to reflect that. I suspect that Wolf Moon was probably the Wolf mating season, since it's coyote mating season in this area. The howling of coyotes last month was very prominent; I suspect Wolves howl a lot in January, too.

JohnD wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 9:39 am It's beautiful picture of a full moon! Why bring in all the false folkways?

Because humans are story tellers.

The one hopefully constructive criticism I have is that the Moon doesn’t look bright enough to light up its surroundings to the extent shown in this composite. A more subtle means of capturing the dynamic range, as is done with photos of the corona during a total solar eclipse, would be helpful.

"Just HOW is this a "Wolf" moon?
There are no wolves on the island where I live, and few in Europe, and anyway the animals couldn't give a F&^*&^ about it!"


Are there any gorillas living on your island?

Yes, me!

Wolf would be a good name for a chocolate bar.

starsurfer wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 11:08 pm Wolf would be a good name for a chocolate bar.

Much better than "Ralph!"

ROFL. No, in fact, snickers.