Full Moon Bonfire
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Location: On the beach between BW 1 and 2
Sunset – 5:45 pm
Moonrise – 5:44 pm
High Tide – 8:10 pm
Full Wolf Moon
After the busy holiday season and the cold weekend, it will be good to gather again for a bonfire on the beach.
To keep things simple, each person brings what you want: food, drinks, chairs and a stick of firewood for a big bonfire. Nothing will be provided but a beautiful beach, a bonfire and, hopefully, a full moon.
Hopefully, the weather remains accommodating. People ask if the bonfire will be held if it’s rainy…. the bonfire will be cancelled if it is raining or rain is threatening as few would be comfortable attending.
By terms of the permit, the fire needs to be out no later than 10:00 pm. The earlier sunset and moonrise times give us time to enjoy the evening.
Other night sky observation opportunities:
The International Space Station is not scheduled to be visible this evening.
According to spacetourismguide.com, there are no spectacular night sky activities at the end of January. It also mentions February will be “one of the quietest months of the year for astronomical events.”
There are no scheduled SpaceX launches scheduled for this week. Starlink is a chain of satellites that reside in low-Earth orbit in outer space. The satellite constellation was launched into orbit in 2019 by SpaceX and provides worldwide broadband internet services. It appears brighter than the space station and looks like a stream of lights running across the sky. Findstarlink.com provides the dates and times it would be visible in the next five days. At the time of this writing, no good visibilities are shown for the date of the bonfire.
Put these dates for the Full Moon Bonfires on your calendar:
Saturday, February 24
Monday, March 25 – This is the Monday before Easter and the day of the full moon but a bonfire will be held only if someone else volunteers to host.
Tuesday, April 23
There’s always plenty of room on the beach for everyone, so invite a friend or bring your houseguests.
How the full moon got its name:
Per The Old Farmer’s Almanac: January – Full Wolf Moon
The howling of wolves was often heard at this time of year. Many sources state that wolves howled due to hunger. Rather, wolves use howls to define territory, locate pack members, reinforce social bonds, and gather for hunting.
Other names: The names of the moon are most often related to natural signs of the season or to activities that were done at this time of year. Some of our favorites include:
• Canada Goose Moon (Tlingit)
• Center Moon (Assiniboine)
• Cold Moon (Cree)
• Freeze Up Moon (Algonquin)
• Frost Exploding Moon (Cree)
• Great Moon (Cree)
• Greetings Moon (Western Abenaki)
• Hard Moon (Dakota)
• Severe Moon (Dakota)
• Spirit Moon (Ojibwe)
I found another website that says the Cherokee Indians called it the Cold Moon and the English Medieval name was the Wolf Moon. Another website says the Chinese call it Holiday Moon.
-Submitted by Judy Morr