Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Harvest Moon

Welcome September!  The Harvest Moon is September 23, 2010.
All full moons rise around the time of sunset. Usually, the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, as it moves in orbit around Earth.  The Harvest Moon and Hunter's Moon are special, because around the time of these full moons, the time difference between moonrise is shorter than usual which means that the moon rises approximately 30 minutes later, from one night to the next.  Thus, there is no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise.  Autumn moons were said to help farmers working to bring in their crops (or, in the case of the Hunter's Moon, hunters tracking their prey). They could continue being productive by moonlight even after the sun had set. Hence the name Harvest Moon. The reason for the shorter-than-usual rising time between successive moonrises around the time of the Harvest and Hunter's Moon is that the ecliptic makes a narrow angle with respect to the horizon in the evening in autumn.
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4 comments :

Tiffany said...

I absolutley LOVE a harvest moon! Aren't they just awesome?!

I Love Pretty Little Things said...

God thinks of everything!

How Beautiful is that moon? Breath taking! I can't imagine, even, how much more beautiful it was in person.

Peggy said...

Wow! That photo is really good! Absolutely beautiful!

JayLeigh said...

Oh, wow, I didn't know that about the harvest moon! That's so neat! I'm going to try and remember to watch for it this year.

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