Micromoon 2024: The smallest full Moon of 2024 rose in the night sky on February 24, 2024, at 7:30 am EST (6 pm IST). The Moon, known as a micromoon, will appear full through Sunday evening. Since the micromoon of 2024 is a full Moon, it will be at its highest point in the sky at midnight. A micromoon is also known as Snow Moon, Storm Moon, Hunger Moon, Wolf Moon, and Candles Moon.
Tribes living in the northeastern United States named the full Moon of February the Snow or Storm Moon because heavy snows occurred at that time, according to the Maine Farmers’ Almanac.
Due to bad weather and heavy snowstorms, hunting was difficult, which is why the micromoon went on to be known as the Hunger Moon.
Micromoon vs supermoon
A micromoon is the opposite of a supermoon because the former appears smaller than the Moon’s usual size, while the latter looks bigger than the usual size of Earth’s natural satellite.
When a full Moon or a new Moon is located at apogee, the point in the Moon’s orbit farthest from the Earth, the world sees a micromoon. The distance between the Earth and the Moon when it is at apogee is 4,05,917 kilometres, according to Earth Sky.
A micromoon is 13 to 14 per cent smaller, and 27 to 30 per cent less bright than a supermoon.
The angular size of a micro full Moon is 12.5 per cent to 14.1 per cent smaller than a super full Moon, and 5.9 per cent to 6.9 per cent smaller than an average full Moon, according to timeanddate.com.
The size of the average full Moon has been calculated by taking into consideration the sizes of the Moon from the years 1550 to 2650.
One can spot Regulus, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, south of the micromoon.
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When will the other micromoons of 2024 occur?
February’s micro full Moon is the smallest full Moon this year, but it is not the only micromoon of 2024. The next micromoon will occur on March 25, and will be a micro full Moon.
The last micromoon of the year will occur on October 3. It will be a micro new Moon.