The full moon in January is called the Wolf Moon and is when wolves run together and howl in hunger outside of the villages. This name is thought to have a Celtic and Old English origin, brought over to North America by the European settlers.

Other Celtic names for the full moon in January include the Old Moon, the Stay Home Moon and the Quiet Moon, while in some Native American cultures, it is called Severe Moon or Center Moon.

In Anglo-Saxon culture, the full moon in January was also called the Moon after Yule. Pre-Christian Yule (or Juul) is the ancient winter solstice festival usually celebrated around December 21.

Wolves howl to communicate and it is there way of saying here I am to the rest of the pack or stay away to intruders. Wolves do howl in the direction of the sky because projecting their howl upward carries the sound farther.

There is no indication that the Moon phase plays any particular part in the calls of any wolf, but wolves are nocturnal animals, so they are generally more active at night.

My hope is to take photos of the moon as it rose above the horizon but due to a low lying cloud cover at sunset, that did not happen.

For the second year in a row, the Wolf moon has provided the earthbound viewers with the nonpareil beauty of a total eclipse. However, the eclipse this year occurred in the middle of the night, high in the sky without the light pollution of a sunrise to distract from the phenomena as was the case last year when the eclipse occurred just before sunrise.

This full moon occurs on the night just after a total eclipse occurs in the morning of the same day just before the sunrise. Photos take just after moonrise.