Last Night To See Full Buck Supermoon In Maryland

MARYLAND — Summer nights are perfect to stare at the moon, and Maryland residents have one last chance tonight to see the full buck moon before the supermoon wanes.

The July full moon will be the biggest and brightest supermoon of the year. It reached peak illumination at 2:39 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time Wednesday, but you can find it tonight by looking toward the southeast sky after sunset to see it rise in the sky.

And not only that, meteor showers are starting up again. The Delta Aquariids started and continue through Aug. 2, peaking July 28-29. Moonless skies will make the peak worth catching.

Back to the supermoon: Whether you’ll be able to see it depends on the weather. AccuWeather’s Wednesday night forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and a 40 percent chance of rain in Maryland.

The National Weather Service forecast for the Baltimore region calls for mostly cloudy skies, with a low around 70.

The full moon rises at 9:05 p.m. EDT on Wednesday.

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If you miss it, there’s one more chance this summer to see a full moon that qualifies as a supermoon. The full sturgeon moon in August will also be a supermoon.

Supermoon isn’t an astronomical term, but one coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979 to explain the effect of perigee — the moon’s closest approach to Earth in a given orbit — when it occurs during a full moon.

The July full moon is called a bull buck moon because it’s the time of year the antlers of male deer are in full growth. Deer shed and regrow their antlers every year, “producing a larger and more impressive set as the years go by,” according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac.

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