Full Moon Tonight Offers Sneak Preview of September Lunar Eclipse

A full moon will grace the sky tonight (Aug. 29), but it is only a dress rehearsal for next month, when the full moon will undergo a total lunar eclipse. Some Native American fishing tribes referred to the full moon of August as the "Sturgeon Moon," since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the "Full Red Moon" because, as the moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze.