MOON TOUR
WOLF
Finding this lunar crater won’t leave you howling with frustration on cold January nights
M any people don’t realise that the full Moons seen throughout the 12 calendar months have names, often rooted in nature. These can be traced back to before the Julian calendar was followed and have ties to Native American culture. For example, May’s full Moon is the ‘Flower Moon’. In November the ‘Hunter’s Moon’ shines over our Bonfire Night celebrations, and as December ends, late-night Christmas shoppers scurry around looking for lastminute gifts beneath the ‘Cold Moon’.
This January, the full Moon that will illuminate our frosty grass and windscreens and the snowmen slumping in our gardens is known as the ‘Wolf Moon’, named by Native Americans after the mournful howling of hungry wolves searching for food halfway through winter. Wolves are in quite short supply in the UK these days, but there is one place you can guarantee seeing one this month – on the Moon itself. Our Moon tour destination this month is the small crater ‘Wolf’.