See July's Full Buck Moon of 2021 rise tonight - Space.com

23 July 2021.

There's more night sky wonders to see than the moon, too.

While the official time of the July full moon is 10:37 p.m.

EDT Friday, July 23 (0237 GMT Saturday, July 24), the moon will appear full through Sunday, NASA said in a skywatching roundup.

On Friday, the planet Saturn (bright in the July night sky) will be about eight degrees above the moon during morning twilight, in the southwest.

If you're clouded out or otherwise miss the opportunity to see Saturn, the planet is still nearby the moon on Saturday night, roughly 7 degrees above during morning twilight.

Then on Sunday night and Monday morning, the planet Jupiter will be about four to six degrees to the upper left of the moon, depending on when you look.

 That said, the full moon is pretty and perfectly safe to look at with the unaided eye, and occasionally you'll get a special treat during full moon season.

This shadow-passing phenomenon is called a lunar eclipse, during which the moon turns red due to the stretched-out reddened light filtering through the edges of our planet's atmosphere and falling on the moon's surface.

The name "Buck Moon" arises from a traditional name from the Algonquin tribes, according to a NASA July 2021 moon guide, in what is now the northeastern United States, eastern Ontario and southern Quebec.

That said, the moon may not be called the same name by all Algonquin peoples or by all Indigenous cultures; for example, another name attributed to the Algonquin for the July moon is the Thunder Moon!