That Moon!

Looking at the moon again this early morning.

It's more than just a connection to the season of harvest. In fact, nature is particularly cooperative during the months of autumn to make the Harvest Moon unique. Here's what happens. On average, the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day. But near the time of the autumnal equinox, the moon rises only about 30 minutes later each day. Why? The reason is that the ecliptic - or path of the sun, moon and planets - makes a narrow angle with the evening horizon during the autumn months. The narrow angle of the ecliptic on autumn evenings results in a shorter-than-usual rising time between successive moonrises around the time of the autumn full moons.

These moonrises are what make every Harvest Moon special. Every full moon rises around the time of sunset. Around the time of this full moon in autumn, you'll see the moon ascending in the east close to the time of sunset for several evenings in a row. There's a short time between successive moonrises as described above. Because of this, it seems as if there are several full moons - for several nights in a row - around the time of the Harvest Moon. http://www.earthsky.org/

...and scherenschnitte by me.