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Black Moon this weekend

Forget about looking up for this sky happening

You have heard the phrase”Blue Moon” referring to a rare occasion. But what about a “Black Moon?”

Blue Moon is usually applied to the second full moon in a month but also the second new moon in a month. However, the second new moon in a season can also be termed a Black Moon.

What about the third new moon?

When we have a new moon this weekend – Friday/Saturday, it can be called a Black Moon. It is the third new moon in the astronomical season between the June solstice and the September equinox.

Astronomical seasons are based on the solstices and equinoxes. But meteorological seasons refer to the temperature cycles of fall, winter, spring and summer.

Jodie Jacobs

For more information visit Rare Black Moon coming August 22-23! Why so special? and What Is a Black Moon? The Unusual Sky Phenomenon Will Occur Later This Month, but Don’t Expect to See It

What and where of Chicago Air and Water Show

U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds (Photo credit Patrick L. Pyszka, City of Chicago)

US Thunderbirds (Photo courtesy of City of Chicago)

Chicago’s famed Air and Water Show is this weekend but you don’t have to wait until Saturday to see its highlights. Just head to the North Avenue Beach on Friday. Bring plenty of sun tan lotion and drinking water because the flyovers will be happening all day.

The show actually can be seen from Fullerton Avenue on the north to Oak Street on the south but North Avenue is the center of the action.

However, if you want to go when thousands of others head to North Avenue, the show runs from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. If similar to past years the U. S. Thunderbirds will fly overhead near the end both says. But watch for them earlier on Friday.

The Air and Water Show, first started in 1959, is free. This year it will again feature the U.S. Army Parachute Team Golden Knights and U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.

It will also pay tribute to the 250th anniversary of the United States Army and United States Marine Corps. However, the U.S. Navy will not be participating.

The Warbird Thunder Airshows part of the event includes the SNJ-2 and SNJ-3, a World War II-era aircraft once used by the U.S. Navy and Marine. Watch for “Ol Growler” leading a routine of loops, rolls and Cuban Eights.

In addition to military performers are the following Civilian Performers and groups.

The show also features:

Bill Stein Airshows
Coleman Aerosports – Kevin Coleman
Folds of Honor Biplane – Ed Hamill
Mini Jet Airshows – Tom Larkin
Muscle Biplane Machaira – Bob Richards
Super Stearman “Big Red” – Susan Dacy

For more information visit City of Chicago :: Chicago Air and Water Show

Have fun

Jodie Jacobs

Look up to watch the Perseids

The Perseids meteor shower, among the best sky shows of the year at about 100 meteors per hour, already started in mid-July and continues to Aug. 24 but peaks Aug. 11–13.

However, because the full August moon known as the Sturgeon Moon (see Sturgeon moon – Travel Smart With Jodie) is now lighting up the heavens it may be hard to see all the meteors shooting across the sky. (Time and Date has a Meteor Shower Sky Map for different locations).

What is it?

The Perseids are named after the constellation Perseus because they seem to emanate from or near (radiant) it. They are space debris from the comet 109P Swift-Tuttle discovered in 1862, according to NASA.

The Earth passes through the Swift-Tuttle trail as it goes around the sun. When the debris enters our atmosphere, it burns up, creating fiery streaks.

Where?

Best is the Northern Hemisphere where the constellation is visible all year.

For more information visit space.com/perseus-constellation.html and NASA

Where?

Best is the Northern Hemisphere where the constellation is visible all year even though the Perseids show up most in August.

For more information visit space.com/perseus-constellation.html and NASA

Sturgeon moon

You can call the August Full Moon the Corn Moon as the Algonquin and Ojibwe tribes have done or the Harvest Moon as called by the Dakotas, but it is tradionally named the Sturgeon Moon after a large fish found in the Great Lakes (also Lake Champlain) that is most often caught at this time of year.

Whatever you want to call the full Moon this month look for it Aug. 9, 2025, when it will be at peak illumination at 3:55 a.m. Eastern Time. However, it will definitely look full Aug. 8-10.

I saw what the sturgeon looks like when visiting the popular Grand Rapids Public Museum in Michigan. Sturgeons really are ugly and do look prehistoric so it’s easy to believe they are, as scientists say, descended from fish that date to the Early Jurasic period.

They have a heterocercal caudal fin like sharks on an elongated smooth body with lateral scutes (plates).

Less ferocious August Full Moon names are Flying Up Moon (Cree) and Black Cherries Moon (Assiniboine) for when chokecherries become ripe. Also, The Tlingit of the Pacific Northwest traditionally call the season of the Mountain Shadows Moon.

Find more information at TimeandDate, at Old Farmer’s Almanac and at Space.

Buck Moon

Begin watching the moon “grow” and glow. It is already peaking into southeastern corner bedrooms. Travel Smart readers are familiar with this advance Moon movement but it is always good to remember that the Full Moon, the shining orb is out all night

The July Full Moon phase reaches full illumination July 10, 2025, at 20:36 UTC (4:37 p.m. Eastern Time) when it will still be below the horizon. So Moonrise and Moonset are at sunset and sunrise. Check out these Skywatching Tips From NASA.

What the July Full moon is called

As with several other full moon names, the July Full Moon, often called the Buck Moon, refers to animal and plant behavior. “Buck” is for the full-growth of male deer antlers. But the July Moon is also known as the Berry Moon ( Anishinaabe and Dakota), and Raspberry Moon (Algonquin, Ojibwe).

Other names include Feather Moulting Moon (Cree) and Salmon Moon, a Tlingit term indicating when fish returned to the area.

Also find interesting information at July full moon 2025: The Buck Moon joins Mars and Saturn | Space and NASA SVS | Moon Phase and Libration, 2025

Terrific photo exhibit

Photograph by Randy Olson The photographer captured this electric storm while photographing sandhill cranes at Platte River, Nebraska in 2016. He shot a series of 30-second exposures through the night, hoping lightning would strike during one. The result: a dramatic and rare view of these iconic birds.

Of course you would expect to see rabbits, deer and squirrels at a Lake County Forest Preserve (LCFP). But how about elephants, lions and tigers?

Check out the close encounters of wild life as perfectly captured by the lens of some of the world’s top photographers. The photo exhibit went up May 24 at the LCFP’s Dunn Museum in Libertyville.

Jodie Jacobs

June Strawberry Moon

Last Spring full moon or first Summer full moon (J Jacobs photo) — **Last Spring full moon or first Summer full moon (J Jacobs**

The June 2025 Full Moon already is full even though it is considered at its fullest or most illuminated at 3:44 a.m. Eastern Time on June 11.

The Moon appears full before and after its peak illumination and it will appear all night because Moonrise and Moonset happen at about sunset and sunrise.

Don’t expect it to be tinted pink even though it’s nickname is the Strawberry Moon. As with other full moon names it reflects what is happening in the season and wild strawberries ripen now.

Some Native American names are Berries Ripen Moon, Green Corn Moon, and Hot Moon but Celtic and Old English names include Flower Moon, Planting Moon, Horse Moon and Dyan Moon. Anglo-Saxons called it the Mead Moon when the meadows or meads are mowed.

June’s full Moon, considered the last Full Moon of Spring (or first of Summer), reaches peak illumination June 11 at 3:44 a.m. Eastern Time. See the Full Moon Calculator for your local time.

A Moon usually appears reddish when it’s close to the horizon because the light rays must pass through the densest layers of the atmosphere. Indeed, June’s full moon will be at its lowest point since 2006 because we’re in a lunar standstill.

A lunar standstill or lunistice is when the Moon reaches its furthest north or furthest south point during a month.

More info at Time and Date and Farmers Almanac

Two Chicago area events for your June calendar

Monarch Magic -Saturday, June 7, Sunday, June 8

The Chalet Nursery, a garden and family-friendly plant and holiday destination in Wilmette (north of the Old Orchard shopping mall) is doing a butterfly event June 7-8 that is fun for adults and kids.

You can buy a Monarch Gardening Starter Kit, sample honey, paint your own butterfly, shop inside or at the Pollinator Farm Truck, hear a guest lecture on the monarch’s migration, and kids can participate in a Sprouts Workshop. For event times visit Events + Classes – Chalet

Also, the first 25 families that Saturday and Sunday receive a free seed packet of native wildflowers to help grow their own butterfly habitat.

The Chalet is at 3132 Lake Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091. For more information visit Events + Classes – Chalet

Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim -June 14, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.

The event is at the Fine Arts Building downtown Chicago at Studebaker Theatre 410 S Michigan Ave.

Calling it “To Steve With Love,” Callaway Celebrates Sondheim as a person who changed musical theater and how performing in a one of his shows personally changed her. Doing this as a world-wide tour, she talks about working with Sondheim in between singing some of his music.

“I’ve performed ‘To Steve With Love’ in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, the Kennedy Center in DC, London, Ireland, and Madrid—but somehow, never in Chicago,” said Callaway. “I’m thrilled to be bringing my Sondheim show to my hometown at long last.”

A Tony and Grammy nominee and Emmy winner, Callaway made her Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. She went on to star in Baby, Miss Saigon, The Look of Love, The Three Musketeers, and for five years appeared as “Grizabella” in Cats.

“To Steve With Love” premiered at 54 Below in New York City and was recorded live. The album earned a 2024 Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.

For more information visit Chicago, IL – To Steve With Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim — Liz Callaway

Flower moon appears on Mothers Day

Are the flowers in your garden patch coming up now?

As with some of the other full moon names, the one in May represents what is happening in the season. Thus Native Americans, early settlers and European planters called it, among other names, the Flower Moon.

Celtic and Old English background names include Mothers’ Moon, Bright Moon, Hare Moon, and Grass Moon, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. No surprise then that in 2025 the May Full Moon happens on Mother’s Day.

It was already mostly full and bright last night, May 8, in Chicago, but it actually gets fuller and reaches full illumination there on Monday, May 12 in the middle of the day at 11:56 a.m.

Flower Moon: Full Moon in May 2025 | The Old Farmer’s Almanac

Different American tribes such as the Dakotas and Algonquins were known to call it by that name. The Cree tribe used Budding Moon.

If looking up tonight, also watch for Spica, a bright star, hovering around the moon, according to Space.

The May Full Moon is a micro moon. Micro moon is applied when the Full Moon’s orbit is farthest from Earth. In this case that would be 405,278 kilometers (251,828 miles) away, according to Time and Date.

It won’t look any smaller and may even appear bigger due to the optical Moon illusion.

Eta Aquarid Meteors

Watch for the Eta Aquarids meteor shower. Going on now, its best Chicago area watch dates in 2025 are before dawn May 5-6 when you may catch up to 50 meteors per hour. The Eta Aquarids is one of two meteor showers created by debris from Comet Halley (1P/Halley). The next time Earth passes through Halley’s path around the Sun is in October as the Oronid meteor shower.