Plants are also featured prominently in July’s Moon names. Several other names for this month’s Moon also reference animals, including Feather Moulting Moon (Cree) and Salmon Moon, a Tlingit term indicating when fish returned to the area and were ready to be harvested.

Bucks shed and regrow their antlers each year, producing a larger and more impressive set as the years go by. The full Moon in July is called the Buck Moon because the antlers of male deer (bucks) are in full-growth mode at this time. Traditionally, each full Moon name was applied to the entire lunar month in which it occurred, not solely to the full Moon. The full Moon names used by The Old Farmer’s Almanac come from a number of places, including Native American, Colonial American, and European sources. → Want to really see a huge full Moon? Read about the “Moon illusion” to discover how and when to look for one! Why Is It Called the Buck Moon? While a supermoon is technically bigger and brighter than a regular full Moon, it only appears about 7% larger-which can be an imperceptible difference to the human eye, depending on other conditions.

July’s full Buck Moon orbits closer to Earth than many of the other full Moons this year, making one of the four supermoons of 2023! At its nearest point, the Buck Moon will be 224,895.4 miles (361,934 km) from Earth, which means that August’s Blue Moon will be the only supermoon that is closer to our planet this year.

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