Coragyps writes:
quote:
And "harvest moon" has nothing to do with how close to Earth the moon is - it's just a full moon at threshing time that provided light before headlights were invented.
Yep. "Harvest" Moon is the full moon nearest the Autumnal Equinox, so named because it helped to provide light during harvest time when electric lights hadn't been invented yet. Because the full moon is so close to the equinox, actual moonrise is fairly consistent over the days surrounding the full moon. That is, on average, moonrise regresses about 50 minutes from night to night but at the equinox, it's about 30 minutes (at latitudes across the middle of the US). That means there isn't much of a gap between sunset and moonrise during this time and with a full (or nearly full) moon, there is a fair amount of light.
It's followed by "Hunter's" Moon when, after harvest when the fields are bare but there is still some grain in the fields, hunters can find game coming out at night to forage for the leftovers.
And contrary to much folklore, neither "Harvest Moon" nor "Hunter's Moon" have any connection to Native Americans. They are British in origin.
Here in San Diego, the moon came up eclipsed. It was quite lovely to see the red moon rising. However, nobody seemed to wonder why I had my telescope out like the last time.
Rrhain
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