We’ve got a full moon next Wednesday and we call it the Bay Scallop Moon, to honor one of the Vineyard’s most appreciated bivalves. There is no better time to think of bay scallops than this time of year. Last month we had the Pumpkin Moon, to coincide with Halloween.

On Wednesday night, the moon will rise above the horizon, after the sun sets. The moon is in the head of Taurus, the bull. This area of many stars is known as Hyades, one of the largest star clusters in our evening sky.

Notice the moon is near the brilliant star Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation. Aldebaran appears so close to the full moon as to be difficult to distinguish as the evening progresses. It is so close that at 5:50 a.m. Thursday morning, the moon passes in front of the star. The occultation will be tough to see as the moon will be low in the western sky. The star reappears out from behind the moon about a half hour later, just before sunrise.

Friday night the gibbous moon appears fairly high in the east after sunset. It is entering the western end of the zodiacal constellation Pisces, one of the largest constellations in the zodiac. The moon has quite a way to go before it appears in the zodiacal constellation Taurus on Wednesday.