Last night, this year’s Flower Full Moon burst big and red from behind the trees in Acadia National Park far across Blue Hill Bay. At first, as you can see here, it was an imperfect form for those of us so far away, like molten glass being shaped on the glass blower’s blowpipe.
As it quickly rose, we saw it seemingly shed its birthing redness and irregularities and grow into a ghostly silver orb on its tireless way to circle the earth.
The May full moon is named the Flower Full Moon because it appears as flowers are blooming in many parts of this country and many Native Americans called it that or similar names.
To our eyes, full moons initially greet us as compressed, blurry, and red or orange because they are low relative to us and their light at this point is passing through, and being bent by, more of Earth’s atmosphere than when they are high. The blue light in the low moonlight is scattered away more than the red light and all of the light is bent more on the horizon than above it. (Brooklin, Maine)