Harvest Moon

[Tyler]

The Full moon tonight is special. Its the Harvest moon, it is determined by the nearest full moon to the autumnal equinox.

months have names for their full moon:

January - Wolf moon
February - Ice moon
March - Storm moon
April - Growing moon
May - Hare moon
June - Mead moon
July - Hay moonzzzzz
August - Corn moon
September - Harvest moon
October - Hunter's moon
November - Snow moon
December - Winter moon

When a full moon happens twice in one month that is called a Blue Moon, often is refered in the phrase 'once in a blue moon'
41 months have blue moons in a centuary, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years.


By TylerWx

Harvest Moon 07

getting closer to winter!

[aslkahuna]

The important thing about the Harvest Moon is that since the Moon is rapidly moving northward along the ecliptic, the normal daily delay between moonrises is considerably shortened for several nights which in the old days allowed for more moonlight for nighttime harvest. This is more pronounced the further poleward one goes and in fact in the latitudes of Europe the Moon actually rises at the same time for several nights and in the Arctic will actually rise earlier for a few nights. When the Ascending Node of the Moons Orbit is located near the Vernal Equinox point in the Sky (which is where the September Full Moon is located) then the Harvest Moon is even more pronounced since the Moon is not only heading northward along the ecliptic but is also rising above the ecliptic. Under those circumstances, the December Full Moon is then as high as it can ever be in the Northern Hemisphere skies being directly overhead at latitude 29N and even north of the Zenith from southern FL. If you have a Blue Moon in January, then February will have no Full Moon and March will also have a Blue Moon.

Steve

[Tyler]

Thanks Steve! interesting stuff!

[BigNeerav]

This moon also begins the time when the farmers begin to harvest the crops that they planted in the spring, hence the name "Harvest Moon". Thanks for the interesting information!

[aslkahuna]

In the Old times, Lammas, which occurs on August 1st, was the first Harvest Festival as the early crop harvest would begin then. August also marks the beginning of the period of time when we see the fastest daily decrease of daylight hours during the year which ends around October 31st (Samhain, the last of the three Harvest Celebrations and the end of the year in ancient Celtic and Druidic Cultures).

Steve