Above Washington / Oregon Coast, June's Strawberry Full Moon Does Something a Little Different

Published 6/21/24 at 5:55 a.m.
By Andre' Hagestedt, Oregon Coast Beach Connection

(Astoria, Oregon) – Up above the Oregon and Washington coastlines, as summer solstice really begins to take hold, the full moon will hit the skies and do something a little different. You can't tell, actually: it's something that astronomers are noting. (Above: Oregon Coast Beach Connection. Timelapse at Manzanita shows the moon and stars moving, but also that same curious cloud rainbow - a kind of moon halo - as we've seen lately)

According to Jim Todd, astronomy expert with Portland's OMSI, Saturday morning – June 22 at 1:31 a.m. - is the first time June's full moon has coincided with the summer solstice since 2005 and 2016. With summer solstice having just happened yesterday, the “Strawberry Moon” - as it's called – plops itself right around the first day of summer.

It's also reaching the highest point this month, which is not saying much. If you've been around either the Oregon coast or Washington coast recently you'll notice it's not very high in the southern skies.

“Despite being at its highest in the sky, viewers in Portland may struggle to see it, as it is very low altitude of 15.18 degrees in the sky,” Todd said.

The moon is always low on the horizon in summer, but soars in the skies in winter; in places like Long Beach, Gold Beach or Cannon Beach.

Also interesting: you may have noticed the moon behind clouds (such as early Friday morning). Did you see the kind of “rainbow” colors around it? In spite of the heat hitting the region right now, those are ice crystals in the sky creating that.

Todd said you have to think of the moon and sun as a kind of seesaw at the moment: because they're directly on the opposite sides from each other with us on Earth in between.

“On the day when the sun is highest in the middle of the day (in summer), the moon is at its lowest high point at midnight; and on the day when the sun is at its lowest high point in the middle of the day (in winter), the moon is at its highest high point at midnight,” Todd said. “The highest for December is when the moon will be more than 68 degrees above the southern horizon. Compare this to June when the moon barely grazes 15 degrees above the southern horizon.”

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June's Strawberry Moon this year is different because the orbital inclination of the moon is not in the same place as the Earth as it orbits our glowing orb, Todd said. The moon has a tilt of five degrees above and below.

“For 2024, this tilt has moved around to where the lowest point is going to be close to the summer solstice,” Todd said. “And so when that full moon near the solstice is occurring, it is going to have a lowest arc across the sky.”

Why is it called the Strawberry Moon in June? The name was actually universal to all the Algonquin tribes of North America, though in Europe it was called the Rose Moon. It was adopted from the native Americans.

“Also, the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during June,” Todd. “So the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry.”

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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