Over the years, my kids and I have developed a love of all things celestial. We ooh and aah over solar eclipses, use apps to identify constellations, watch for shooting stars during meteor showers and try to spot and identify the visible planets.
Unfortunately, we live in LA. So, unless we make the trip to Griffith Observatory, city light noise makes star gazing pretty tough.
However, we can always see the Moon.
Watching full moons has become something of a bonding point for my oldest daughter and myself. Like me, she appreciates the beauty of a giant full moon, more so than my other kids. Since it is hard to get a 14 year old girl to look up from her phone, I use the moons as something of a 10 or 15 minute connection period for the two of us.
Until she starts taking pictures of the Moon. And a selfie. And a selfie looking at the Moon. The moment is fleeting to say the least.
But I’ll take it.
What’s in a Moon Name?
We have developed a fascination with the the names that they all seem to carry these days. No longer can we just call them “full moons”.
Now, it’s like a crazy Starbucks order . “Can I see a Blood Hunter’s Moon, please? On second though, make that a Super Blood Hunter’s Moon, extra bright.”
The names are a combination of a descriptive (Super, Blood, etc.) and the Native American names given to each month’s full moon.
The descriptive is applied to those moons that are experiencing an atypical month. For example, a Super moon coincides with the Moon’s closest approach in its orbit around Earth. A Blood Moon, is a for those months where the full moon is also a Lunar eclipse, which happens around 2-4 times each year.
Every once in a while, a couple of these lunar events coincide, and you get multiple descriptives, which make for very cool names. In fact, January 2019 actually treated us to one of these.
There was a second full moon (a Blue Moon) on January 31 which also happened to be a total lunar eclipse (a Blood Moon) AND it happened at the closest part of it’s orbit (a Super Moon). Since January full moons are called “Wolf Moons”, we had the rare, and uber-cool sounding, “Super Blue Wolf Blood Moon”.
A Special Moon for My Kids
2020 will have 13 full moons, since October will have two. The second full moon of any month is referred to as a Blue Moon – as in “once in a blue…” – due to its rarity, not the actual color.
This will be a particularly exciting moon this year, especially for my kids. The October Blue Moon will fall on Halloween, which happens maybe only 5 times each century.
So not only will it be a rare occurrence (the last Halloween Blue Moon was 2001), but Halloween is also a huge day in our house. It’s my birthday and it really kicks off the entire holiday season for us. So to have a full moon on Halloween, and a Blue Moon at that, for me and my kids? What could be better?
2020 Full Moons
To help you plan those special viewing nights with your kids, here are the dates for the 2020 Full Moons according to the Farmer’s Almanac.
- January 10 Wolf Moon
- February 9 Snow Moon
- March 9 Super Worm Moon
- April 7 Super Pink Moon
- May 7 Super Flower Blood Moon
- June 5 Strawberry Moon
- July 5 Buck Moon
- August 3 Sturgeon Moon
- September 2 Harvest Moon
- October 1 Hunter’s Moon
- October 31 Blue Moon (A Blue Halloween Moon? Yes!)
- November 30 Beaver Moon
- December 29 Cold Moon
Have fun, and I hope you enjoy these experiences with your kids as much as I have with mine.
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