05/03/2015

Sap Moon


Source: Four Mile Lab

There are many names for it among Native Americans, Sap Moon, Little Spring Moon, Snow Crust Moon.  Earthsky.org calls it micro-moon and mini-moon. In any case, tonight's full moon (exact at 4:05 p.m. PST /18:05 UTC) is the smallest full moon of the year because today is also the lunar apogee – which means the moon is at it's farthest point from earth. Today it is 30,000 miles (48280 km)farther away from Earth than the full supermoon and the Northern Hemisphere’s Harvest Moon which both happen later this year.



So, enjoy the Sap Moon. The bees are. Today, finally, they showed up. I was very concerned that spring had come too early because the pussy willow tree are blooming and, unlike years past, no bees have come to harvest its abundant pollen and enjoy its delicious, rich sap. But today, on Sap Moon, they arrived and the tree is filled with their buzzing.

Source: Condesign and Pixabay



2 comments:

Roy said...

You know, when we start looking at the orbit of the moon and planets, it starts to look like they are not as perfect as we thought--things get nearer, they get farther, they wobble, they probably vacillate. It's all the more terrifying to me.

Roy said...

I do worry about the bees. I kind of like them. I hope their recent decrease in numbers is just some sort of blip.