A full, yellow ‘honey moon’ will rise tonight: A must-see

There’s an especially cool “honey moon” rising tonight and you don’t want to miss it.

Fortunately, spotting it is easy.

All you need to do is look up toward the sky sometime after sunset. And if you look at exactly 9:11 p.m. PDT, you can have the satisfaction of seeing the honey moon at its very fullest.

June’s full moon is called the honey moon because of all the full moons of the year, it is the one most likely to glow yellow throughout the night.

Why is that? Well, a full moon looks full because it is directly opposite the sun. In June, the sun is highest in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere, so therefore, the moon is lowest in the sky.

It is this position in the sky that gives the June full moon its honey glow.

“Whenever the moon is low in the sky, we see it through a thick atmosphere and that turns it red or yellow or orange, just like the setting sun,” explained Alan MacRobert of Sky & Telescope.

He added that in some parts of the country the increased moisture in the air at this time of year makes the air even more hazy and the moon even more amber-colored. (I don’t think we will get that extra boost here in bone-dry California.)

If you prefer to do your moon watching online, the astronomy website Slooh.com will host a live broadcast of the honey moon from its telescopes in the Canary Islands and near Santiago, Chile.

If you get a great picture of the honey moon, tweet it to me @DeborahNetburn