New Year Night Sky

The first full moon of 2025 rises tonight. 

According to Native American tradition January's full moon is also known as a Wolf Moon.  Legend suggests that wolves howled more at this time of year due to winter hunger. European settlers also knew this as the Old Moon or Moon After Yule

Wolves have made their presence known around here on very rare occasion and what I know for sure is that with all the dang deer on the landscape if any have found their way across the ice to the peninsula they will not be hungry.  I fully expect that any howling I hear this evening will be from the resident coyotes.  Like their larger wolf brethren any vocalizations will be social in nature - locating pack members, reinforcing their familial bonds, defining territory and such.  

 

NASA image

Prior to European settlement the Lakota people know this as the Hard Moon, the Cree called this the Cold Moon, the Ojibwe of the Great Lakes Region called this the Great Spirit Moon and the Assiniboine fittingly refer to this as the Center Moon - the demarcation of mid-winter.

Watch for the moon to rise from the east at sunset tonight and tomorrow. As a bonus, the bright red planet Mars will be shining just to the moon's lower left (or celestial east).  

It will reach its highest point around midnight. If you're up for any reason while the moon is high in the night sky be sure to observe that a winter full moon climbs as high in the heavens as the summer noonday sun.  On a clear winter night you can see your shadow by the light of the moon!

If you are an early riser you can locate the moon above the western horizon before sunrise. 

Fingers-crossed for cold, clear, winter night skies.