The full buck moon will reach its peak illumination on Thursday, July 10. It’s just one of this month’s celestial highlights.

The moon rises in the southeast sky on Thursday evening around 9 p.m. in both D.C. and San Francisco. July’s full moon — the first of astronomical summer in the Northern Hemisphere — will reach peak illumination at 4:38 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, with best viewing during the predawn and again after dark in the evening.

July’s full moon is called "the Buck Moon” because in July, velvet antler growth, called antlerogenesis, makes an older buck’s rack often very noticeable and actually at its peak growth rate.