Anyone interested in astronomy knows that the Earth rotates on an axis tilted at 23.4 degrees, meaning the Sun rises and sets within a 47-degree range throughout the year. However, above Stonehenge, the Moon’s orbit follows a different path and numerical scale, tilted 5.1 degrees to the ecliptic. As a result, the range of when the Moon rises (cool term) and when the Moon sets is 57 degrees, which varies during any given month.
Thus this week’s near-full moonrise, which also happens to be the summer solstice, presents a dramatic yet frightening example of the phenomenon described above.