This weekend brings the beautiful Harvest Moon!
The Harvest Moon is the name for the full moon that is closest to the autumnal equinox, which came on Sept. 22 this year.
Here’s what that means for the non-astronomers among us.
On average, the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day. But when the full moon occurs near the fall equinox, the gaps between moonrises are shorter. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, the moon rises about 30 minutes later each night. This happens before and after the full moon, resulting in three consecutive days of the moon appearing at nearly the same time.
The early evening moonrises means the Moon shines brightly during early evening for several extra days running — traditionally providing welcome light just when busy farmers needed the extra work hours to get in their crops.
The Harvest Moon may look bigger and seem closer, but it’s not. It’s just another Celestial Grand Illusion!
Related articles
- Everything you need to know: Harvest Moon 2012 (dogmaandgeopolitics.wordpress.com)
- Harvest moon shines on all weekend (blogs.denverpost.com)
- Harvest Full Moon or Corn Full Moon September 29-30, 2012 (cherokeebillie.wordpress.com)
- What is the exact time of the Harvest Moon in 2012? (earthsky.org)
- Harvest Full Moon Rises This Weekend (space.com)
- Full “Harvest” Moon Saturday night (wtvr.com)
- Harvest Moon Meets Uranus in the Sky Saturday: How to Watch Online (space.com)
- Everything you need to know: Harvest Moon 2012 (earthsky.org)
- September’s Harvest Moon (verado.wordpress.com)
- Harvest Moon pictures from EarthSky friends (earthsky.org)
Breathtaking photo – thank you for sharing.
Cool info on the harvest moon!
We never get to see any fun celestial events at my house! The east is hidden behind a hill for us, or rather, we’re sunk bellow the rest of the area, so interesting sunrises and moonrises are always missed. We usually don’t see the sun until 9 or 10 every day here.
That said, the moon is fantastically bright this evening. It was wonderful to be outside.
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Love the picture!