Snow Moon is a perfectly fitting name for February's full moon, but where I live in the northern Midwest, the native Ojibwe people call it Namebini-giizis (nah-MAY-bi-NAY-GE-zis) which means Sucker-fish (Namebini) Moon (giizis).

I took this photo moments after the first appearance of the moon at moonrise in Feb. 2020. Refraction by the atmosphere "lifts" the bottom half of the moon into the upper half, turning it into a stubby cigar. The moon is orange because we look through the greatest density of air at the horizon. The air scatters away the purple, blue, green and even some yellow light from the moonlight. Only orange and red make it through to our eyes. (Bob King)

The story goes that the Ojibwe were starving one bitter-cold winter. Namebini, the sucker-fish, took pity on them and appealed to the Great Spirit. The fish offered to help feed the tribe by sacrificing some of its own. The Great Spirit was impressed with the selfless offer and gifted the species with great fertility so it could provide for the native people as well as increase its own number and prosper. The Ojibwe honor the deed in February's full moon.

When we look at the full moon, the sun is at our back. Light from the sun fully illuminates the lunar nearside. Since the two bodies lie on opposite sides of the Earth 180° apart, the full moon rises about the same time the sun sets. (Bob King)

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This weekend moon will rise around sunset in the constellation Leo the lion. Once it gets above the trees and rounds out, I have an observing challenge for you. It's an easy one that will test your visual acuity, while also offering an opportunity to become more familiar with lunar landmarks.

All you have to do is face the moon and refer to the photo below. I've numbered and identified nine lunar seas and two of the most prominent craters visible around the time of full moon. The numbers are ordered from easiest to hardest. If you can spot 1 through 6 you've done well, but I suspect you'll do even better.

Use this photo to help you identify nine lunar seas and two craters. They are listed in order of difficulty with "1" being the easiest and "11" the hardest. How many can you see? (Bob King)

What's nice about the moon is that you can see it from downtown Chicago as easily as the countryside. No one is at a disadvantage. If the weather looks uncertain on either full moon night, go out the night before or after.

The seas, also called maria (MAH-ree-uh), are enormous basins blasted out by asteroids between 3.1 and 3.9 billion years ago during a period of intense bombardment. Later, basaltic magmas rose up from cracks in these gouges and filled them full of molten rock which hardened to form the "seas". At least that's what they looked like to our ancestors. Now, we know their true nature.

Both Copernicus (58 miles / 93 km diameter) and Tycho (53 miles / 85 km) sit at the center of huge ray systems that look like splats of spilled milk. Rays form when rocks ejected during the crater's formation fall back to the surface and make craters of their own. Newly-excavated craters expose lighter lunar soils underneath, the reason rays look bright compared to other areas on the moon.

Although this is designed as a naked-eye challenge, you can use binoculars to either confirm what you see or to help pinpoint the location of a feature you're not sure about, so you can then look for it without optical aid.

Good luck! And let us know how you do by leaving a comment on Astro Bob's Astronomy for Everyone on Facebook.

"Astro" Bob King is a freelance writer for the Duluth News Tribune. Read more of his work at duluthnewstribune.com/astrobob.