See the Full Beaver Moon on Friday, the Last Dazzling Supermoon of 2024
November's spectacle closes out a series of four big and bright full moons that have captivated sky watchers since late summer
The name Beaver Moon has roots in Native American traditions, according to NASA’s Serena Whitfield. November’s full moon might have earned this name because it coincides with the time when beavers become more active as they prepare for winter. It was also the time to set beaver traps before wetlands froze over.
Native American names for the full moons were published in the Old Farmer’s Almanac beginning in the 1930s, which brought them to wider use. November’s full moon is known not only as the Beaver Moon, but also as the Frost or Frosty Moon and the Snow Moon, among other names.
This week, NASA has used the Beaver Moon to tout an unusual application of its Earth-observing satellites: monitoring habitat where beavers have been reintroduced. The large rodents are crucial to the health of ecosystems, but they were trapped nearly to extinction by barely 400 years after European colonization of North America. Now, their numbers are rebounding, and NASA has been working with conservationists and ranchers in Idaho to find streams that could support reintroduced beavers, as well as monitor the vegetation changes once the animals have been returned to the habitat.
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