What is a Wolf Moon? In January, amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Native American villages. Thus, the villagers began calling January’s full moon the Wolf Moon.

Wolf Moon Name Variations

The Wolf Moon was sometimes referred to as the Old Moon or the Moon After Yule. Some tribes called January’s full moon the Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to February’s full moon.

When is the next Wolf Moon?

The Wolf Moon dates are expressed in Coordinated Universal Time (UT), the international basis for other time zones. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full moon dates shift from year to year. For Wolf Moon times in your city, please use the Time Zone Converter.

Full Moon	Lunation	Year	Date	Time
Wolf Moon	1089	2011	January 19	21:21
Wolf Moon	1101	2012	January 9	07:30
Wolf Moon	1114	2013	January 27	04:39
Wolf Moon	1126	2014	January 16	04:53
Wolf Moon	1138	2015	January 5	04:54

Full Moon Names History

Full Moon names have been used by many cultures to describe the full moon throughout the year. Specifically, Native American tribes used moon phases and cycles to keep track of the seasons by giving a distinctive name to each recurring full moon, including the wolf moon. The unique full moon names were used to identify the entire month during which each occurred.

Although many Native American tribes gave distinct names to the full moon, the most well known full moon names come from the Algonquin tribes who lived in the area of New England and westward to Lake Superior. The Algonquin tribes had perhaps the greatest effect on the early European settlers in America, and the settlers adopted the Native American habit of naming the full moons.

January 19 is a full wolf moon: Facts and history behind odd full moon names

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If nothing else captures the interest of a child or young adult to learn, space usually succeeds with all its wonder. You've heard of a full moon. If you're savvy, you probably even know terms such as waxing, waning, crescent or even what a harvest moon or a blue moon is. But, did you know that over the skies of St. Louis, and all of America, on January 19 there will be a Full Wolf Moon? The most popular observatories, such as the UMSL viewing observatory, in the St. Louis area are closed for the winter. But, you can still get a good look at the moon from your own back yard if the sky isn't too cloudy. But, why is it called a Full Wolf Moon?

According to this article on Space.com, the moons got their names from Native Americans. The article explains what the names such as a Full Pink Moon, Full Snow Moon, Full Worm Moon, Full Flower Moon, Full Strawberry Moon, Full Buck Moon, Full Sturgeon Moon, Full Harvest Moon, Full Hunter's Moon, Full Beaver Moon and Full Cold Moon mean and the times they are best viewed.

The article explains the moon, which can best be viewed at 3:21 p.m. St. Louis time tonight, as follows:

Full Wolf Moon: Amid the zero cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. The Full Wolf Moon was also known as the Old Moon or the Moon After Yule. In some tribes, this was also known as the Full Snow Moon; most applied that name to the next moon.

MOON FACTS

The Moon

The Moon (or Luna) is the Earth’s only natural satellite and was formed 4.6 billion years ago around some 30–50 million years after the formation of the solar system. The Moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth meaning the same side is always facing the Earth. The first unmanned mission to the Moon was in 1959 by the Soviet Lunar Program with the first manned landing being Apollo 11 in 1969.

Moon Profile

Circumference at Equator: 10,917.0 km

Diameter: 3,475 km

Mass: 73,476,730,924,573,500 million kg (0.0123 x Earth)

Orbits: The Earth

Average Distance from Earth: 384,400 km

Length of Orbit: 27.3 Earth days

Surface Temperature: -233 to 123 °C

Size Of The Moon Compared To The Earth

Moon Size

Facts About The Moon

The dark side of the moon is a myth:

In reality both sides of the Moon see the same amount of sunlight however only one face of the Moon is ever seen from Earth. This is because the Moon rotates around on its own axis in exactly the same time it takes to orbit the Earth, meaning the same side is always facing the Earth. The side facing away from Earth has only been seen by the human eye from spacecraft.

The rise and fall of the tides on Earth is caused by the Moon:

There are two bulges in the Earth due to the gravitational pull that the Moon exerts; one on the side facing the Moon, and the other on the opposite side that faces away from the Moon, The bulges move around the oceans as the Earth rotates, causing high and low tides around the globe.

The Moon is drifting away from the Earth:

The Moon is moving approximately 3.8 cm away from our planet every year. It is estimated that it will continue to do so for around 50 billion years. By the time that happens, the Moon will be taking around 47 days to orbit the Earth instead of the current 27.3 days.

A person would weigh much less on the Moon:

The Moon has much weaker gravity than Earth, due to its smaller mass, so you would weigh about one sixth (16.5%) of your weight on Earth. This is why the lunar astronauts could leap and bound so high in the air.

The Moon has only been walked on by 12 people; all American males:

The first man to set foot on the Moon in 1969 was Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission, while the last man to walk on the Moon in 1972 was Gene Cernan on the Apollo 17 mission. Since then the Moon has only be visited by unmanned vehicles.

The Moon has no atmosphere:

This means that the surface of the Moon is unprotected from cosmic rays, meteorites and solar winds, and has huge temperature variations. The lack of atmosphere means no sound can be heard on the Moon, and the sky always appears black.

The Moon has quakes:

These are caused by the gravitational pull of the Earth. Lunar astronauts used seismographs on their visits to the Moon, and found that small moonquakes occurred several kilometres beneath the surface, causing ruptures and cracks. Scientists think the Moon has a molten core, just like Earth.

The first spacecraft to reach the Moon was Luna 1 in 1959:

This was a Soviet craft, which was launched from the USSR. It passed within 5995 km of the surface of the Moon before going into orbit around the Sun.

The Moon is the fifth largest natural satellite in the Solar System:

At 3,475 km in diameter, the Moon is much smaller than the major moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Earth is about 80 times the volume than the Moon, but both are about the same age. A prevailing theory is that the Moon was once part of the Earth, and was formed from a chunk that broke away due to a huge object colliding with Earth when it was relatively young.

The Moon will be visited by man in the near future:

NASA plans to return astronauts to the moon to set up a permanent space station. Mankind may once again walk on the moon in 2019, if all goes according to plan.

During the 1950’s the USA considered detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon:

The secret project was during the height cold war was known as “A Study of Lunar Research Flights” or “Project A119” and meant as a show of strength at a time they were lagging behind in the space race.

Phases Of The Moon (Northern Hemisphere)

Moon Phases

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The world was dazzled, if not delighted by Sunday's Blood Moon – a rare Supermoon combined with a total lunar eclipse.

It is dubbed the "blood moon" because the eclipse makes an orange, reddish appearance of the moon.

Millions tuned into NASA's live stream of last night's lunar eclipse while millions more simply walked outside and looked to the sky. The eclipse lasted for a bit more than an hour and many throughout the world got a good look.

Naturally, then, inquiring minds want to know: When is the next blood moon?

Well, it's not any time soon. The Supermoon – a full moon closest to the earth so that it appears larger and brighter – doesn't combine with a total lunar eclipse again until the year 2033.

So, last night was all of this blood moon madness you will get for a while.

There will be another total lunar eclipse before then --  it just won't match with a supermoon. The next total lunar eclipse is set for January 31, 2018. It will be visible in North America, Asia and Australia.

There is another supermoon coming up soon. On October 27, 2015 we will get our third supermoon in as many months.

As for Sunday night's Supermoon, you can see our pictures with this post.

And, in case you were wondering about the difference between a blood moon, harvest moon and strawberry moon you can read about that here. Suffice to say though that Supermoons are not rare.

In fact, Sunday's was the fifth of six supermoons in 2015 alone. The new moons of January, February and March were supermoons as was the full moon in August. The September and October full moons will also be supermoons.