Skywatchers across the globe were treated to a celestial spectacle on June 10–11 as the 2025 Strawberry Moon rose, marking the lowest-rising full moon since 2006 due to a rare astronomical phenomenon known as a major lunar standstill.
This occurs every 18.6 years, when the moon’s orbit reaches its maximum tilt, causing it to hug the horizon more closely.
The event was especially picturesque in Greece, where the moon illuminated landmarks like the Parthenon and the Temple of Poseidon.
Across the US and Europe, viewers captured the full moon rising late in the evening, casting a golden hue as it passed through Earth’s thicker atmosphere, and creating an optical illusion of greater size near the horizon.
Named by Algonquin and other Native American tribes to mark the strawberry harvest, the June full moon—also known as the flower or rose moon—was the first of meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
It passed through the constellations Ophiuchus and Sagittarius and nearly occulted the bright red star Antares.
The 2025 Strawberry Moon was the most southerly full moon since 2006, and such a low lunar rise won’t happen again until 2043.
