Strawberry Moon Draws Photographers and Viewers Across Brazil

Overview

• The June full moon, which rose on Monday, June 29, was widely seen across Brazilian cities and widely photographed by amateurs and professionals.
• The nickname 'Strawberry Moon' comes from Algonquin and Ojibwe lunar names that linked June’s full moon to wild strawberry harvests and does not mean the Moon turns pink.
• Observers saw reddish and golden tones when the Moon sat low because its light passed through more air, dust and aerosols which filter out blue wavelengths.
• This full moon coincided with a microlua, meaning it occurred near lunar apogee so the Moon was marginally smaller and slightly dimmer than a perigee full moon, a difference noticeable only with instruments.
• Photographers and skywatchers reported best results when shooting soon after moonrise near the horizon, using low light-pollution sites and longer lenses to capture the colored disk and foreground details.