May's 'flower moon' lit up the sky tonight

May’s full moon is known as the flower moon, a reference to its appearance in late spring, when many flowering plants in the Northern Hemisphere begin to bloom again after their winter slumber.

In some parts of the world, the full moon will come so close to the bright star Antares on Thursday night that the star will appear to vanish behind the moon, according to NASA.

But ancient groups coined several creative names for May’s full moon that mark the arrival of warmer weather and the new life that grows during the spring.

Its old English name is “milk moon,” according to NASA, a reference to the archaic English word for the month we now call May.

Other names for May’s full moon include “frog moon,” from the Cree people of Canada’s North Plains — likely a nod to the spring peeper frog and its birdlike chirp, which is a harbinger of warm weather.

The Dakota and Lakota people of the US Great Plains also called the celestial spectacle the “planting moon” to mark the agricultural practice of planting in the spring for a healthy harvest.

The flower moon played a minor role in a particularly dark period of US history. Martin Scorsese’s recent Oscar-nominated historical drama Killers of the Flower Moon explores a series of murders of Osage people in Oklahoma.

The killings began in May 1921, the month of the flower moon.

Of the 12 full moons this year, the September and October lunar events will be considered supermoons, according to EarthSky.

Definitions of a supermoon can vary, but the term generally denotes a full moon that is closer to Earth than normal and thus appears larger and brighter in the night sky.

Some astronomers say the phenomenon occurs when the moon is within 90 per cent of perigee — its closest approach to Earth in orbit.

Here are the remaining full moons of the year: