09/08/2022 – Ephemeris – We are going to have an early Harvest Moon this year

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Thursday, September 8th. Today the Sun will be up for 12 hours and 53 minutes, setting at 8:06, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:14. The Moon, 2 days before full, will set at 5:54 tomorrow morning.

We are going to have an early Harvest Moon this year, on the early morning of Saturday the 10th, this Saturday coming up. The Harvest Moon is the closest full moon to the autumnal equinox, which is on the 22nd. The earliest a Harvest Moon can fall is on the 8th of September. The reason that the Harvest Moon is so famous is that at sunset the Moon’s path, in the sky, is shallow to the horizon. So it rises much less than its average 50 minutes later each night. This effectively lengthens the amount of useful twilight, allowing more time to harvest the crops. It compensated for the rapid retreat of the daylight hours this time of year. It’s not so important now, but back before electric lights it definitely was.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The Harvest Moon rising as seen in Stellarium. The planetarium program Stellarium, which I use a lot, also colors the rising and setting Moon and Sun. It also reproduces the effect of atmospheric refraction, which makes objects close to the horizon look higher than they are. Thus, extended objects close to the horizon appear squashed a bit vertically.

 

The Harvest Moon effect is a phenomenon where the Moon’s nightly advance in rising times become much shorter than the average 50 minutes. This has the effect of extending the bright part of twilight for up to a week near the Harvest Moon. Complicating effects this year are the fact that the Harvest Moon is a supermoon, being a bit brighter than normal, and also moving faster than normal, negating the harvest moon effect somewhat. The Moon’s perigee was on the 7th, so the Moon is slowing down*, which shows in the delay numbers. Also helping to shorten the delay is that the path of the Moon is a bit shallower than the ecliptic. The Moon is south of the ecliptic, heading northward to its ascending node.

The Moon moves fastest in its orbit at perigee, and its slowest at apogee, at its farthest from the Earth.