When Does the Strawberry Moon End? Stunning Photos Show Last Supermoon of 2021

Skywatchers have shared photos of the moon on social media after June's strawberry moon appeared on Thursday.

The strawberry moon is named after the season for picking strawberries in the northeastern U.S. Its name has roots in traditional Native American sources.

European names for the full moon in June include the honey moon and mead moon, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac. In July, skygazers will be treated to what is known as a full buck moon, named after the antlers that bucks grow during this time.

The full moon occurred on Thursday afternoon at around 2:40 p.m. EDT, according to NASA, when it appeared opposite the sun and fully illuminated.

It wasn't visible for everyone at exactly that time, and there will be plenty more chances to see it. The moon will appear full for around three days until early Saturday morning, NASA said.

Some people have already gotten their cameras ready. Photos posted to Twitter showed the strawberry moon photographed from various locations, sometimes with a reddish hue.

For some, the strawberry moon is more likely to have a reddish color than at other times of the year.

Retired NASA executive Gordon Johnston, who writes monthly sky-watching articles for the space agency, said this is because the tilt of the Earth causes the full moon to appear low in the sky near the summer solstice.

When the moon is low in the sky its light has to shine through more of the Earth's atmosphere to reach us. This causes the light to appear more red, just as sunrises and sunsets also tend to have an orange glow as they are low in the sky.

This week's full moon has also been referred to as the last supermoon of 2021.

A supermoon occurs when the full moon is particularly close to the Earth in its orbit, though there is no set definition.

NASA is among those to have referred to the strawberry moon as the year's last supermoon, and said the term is "typically" used to describe a full moon that comes within 90 percent perigee—its closest point to Earth.

Johnston noted that some publications consider there to have been four supermoons this year from March to June, while others have counted only two from April to May.

In any case, supermoons are slightly brighter and larger in the sky than the moon is at other times of the year—though some say the difference in size cannot be detected with the naked eye.