FEBRUARY FULL MOON & VELVETY VIOLET 'FLOWER OF THE MONTH'

"The moon looks upon many night flowers;

the night flowers see but one moon."

~ Jean Ingelow

(Songs of the Night Watches)

~ February Full Moon & Violet (flower of the month)

Namebini-giizis - 'Sucker Moon'

(Ojibwe)

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February Moon

The Full Moon of February occurs on the 9th at 9:49 AM EST. It is known as the "Wolf, Snow, or Hunger Moon." It was the "Trapper's Moon" to Colonial Americans and the "Storm Moon " for medieval English. Chinese refer to it as the "Budding Moon", and for the Celts it was the "Moon of Ice". Anishnaabe (Chippewa and Ojibwe) know it as "Namebini-giizis" (Sucker Moon).

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The February full moon falls at 14:49 Universal Time today.
That’s 8:49 a.m. in the central U.S. Every full moon takes place at the same instant for everyone all around the world – but your clock time for the full moon varies by your time zone.

To look full to us, the moon has to be opposite the sun. That moment when it’s most opposite the sun for the month marks the instant of full moon – and that instant has to come at different hours on the clock, all around the globe.

For the west coast of the US, for example, the moon reaches the crest of its full phase around sunrise this morning. At this same full moon instant, it’s high noon today in eastern Brazil, and midnight in Japan and Australia. Still, no matter where you live, watch for the full-looking moon dominant from dusk till dawn.

And remember that – at every instant, like at the instant of today’s full moon – the globe of Earth is always half-illuminated by sunlight and half-engulfed in shadow. Earth has a day side and a night side. At any moment, there’s always a sunrise and sunset someplace on Earth. Around now, a full moon will shine in the east at sundown – for all parts of Earth.
Astronomers use Universal Time use Universal Time as their standard. It corresponds to standard clock time at the prime meridian of 0 degrees longitude, which runs through Greenwich, England.

The full moon for February 9, 2009 comes 14:49 Universal Time (9:49 Eastern Time; 8:49 Central Time; 7:49 Mountain Time; 6:49 Pacific Time)

~ Earth Sky