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The harvest moon is the name given by many calendars to the full moon that occurs closest to the date of the autumn equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. Sometimes the Harvest Moon occurs in October, this year it shone on Friday, September 24th, one day after the equinox on the 23rd. Some folks claim that the harvest moon shines brighter and more golden than during normal full moons, but this is simply an illusion due to the angle of the ecliptic -- the apparent path of the Earth in relation to the sun. However, since the time between moonrises on successive nights is shorter in autumn than at any other time of year, there is very little darkness between sunset and moonrise.
This allows farmers to keep harvesting as twilight changes to moonlight. And -- just as you guessed -- we have a "harvest" moon. (This was even more important before tractors came equipped with headlights.) We learned all this from a transcript of the Earth & Sky radio program titled "Harvest Moon," part of an archive hosted by the World of Science. To get there we composed an advanced search:
+"harvest moon" +equinox This search expression turned up sites that pertained to the "harvest moon" rather than just "harvest" or "moon" and also included information about the equinox. It helped eliminate commercial sites that use "harvest moon" in their brand name. When we got to the Earth & Sky site
we used their on-site search box to explore. On a web page from the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, we found a list of full-moon names, where we learned that the "hunter's moon" follows the harvest moon. It occurs this year on October 24. Then, just for fun, we hunted down the lyrics to the most popular moon song of this century, "Shine On Harvest Moon," written way back in 1903.
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