A Rare Super Harvest Moon Tonight - Look Up!

The first day of fall meets a full moon with a rare "Super Harvest Moon" tonight.

The rare event occurs only once every 20 years and will probably not re-occur until 2029.

From Washington Post:

Get ready for a night show. It's tough to come to grips with the end of summer. Luckily, autumn will enter with a bang this year.

Not only will Northern America witness the beginning of autumn at 11:09 Eastern tonight, there will be a full moon in the sky. Put those two occurrences together and you'll get the rare "super harvest moon."

"The two sources of light will mix together to create a kind of 360-degree, summer-autumn twilight glow," NASA Science writes.

When farmers relied on moonlight to extend harvesting hours, they started calling the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox the harvest moon. If the full moon fell on the first actual day of autumn, it became "super harvest," or the "harvestest."

The event has not occurred for 20 years, and probably will not reoccur until 2029.

As an added bonus, Jupiter will appear very close to the moon tonight. NASA's Tony Phillips writes: "A Super Harvest Moon, a rare twilight glow, a midnight conjunction--rarely does autumn begin with such celestial fanfare."

If you're out on the town tonight, take a photo of the super harvest moon. Or better yet, take a photo howling at the moon and submit your images here.

Some instructions for best viewing (also from NASA): "Keep an eye on the Moon as it creeps above the eastern skyline. The golden orb may appear strangely inflated. This is the Moon illusion at work. For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging Moon appears much wider than it really is. A Harvest Moon inflated by the moon illusion is simply gorgeous."



But there's a full moon risin'
Let's go dancin' in the light
We know where the music's playin'
Let's go out and feel the night.

Reviews of Neil Young's Harvest Moon.

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