Saturday brings us September’s full moon, the infamous, Harvest Moon. However, the Harvest Moon doesn’t get its name just because it’s the month of September, its name is related to the autumnal equinox. (You might recall from past Look Ups that during the equinox, the sun crosses the celestial equator — an imaginary extension of Earth’s equator line out into space — when the sun crosses the celestial equator from north to south, this marks the autumnal equinox; when it crosses from south to north, this marks the vernal or spring equinox.) When the equinox is closer to October’s full moon, then September’s full moon is called the Corn Moon and October’s moon becomes the Harvest Moon, according to Almanac.com. The autumnal equinox is Sept. 22, just before 6 p.m.
Another thing that makes the Harvest Moon stand out is that it seems like it’s full for a few nights. For instance, the moon looked full when it rose Friday but didn’t reach full brightness until almost 6 a.m. Saturday. It will still look full Sunday. In addition, it will rise just a half-hour after sunset. Furthermore, it’ll appear larger and more orange as it rises when it’s close to the horizon. This is called moon illusion. It will rise just about a half-hour later each night while sunset is a minute or two earlier. The shorter days will really become noticeable after the equinox.
Then, don’t forget, Jupiter and Saturn are hanging out in the south after sunset. Saturn rises before sunset so it’s visible in the south as soon as it gets dark. Saturn looks like a bright star so it might be difficult to distinguish it from other stars, that’s when using a star app is helpful. It’ll display a map of the stars and identifies planets. Jupiter rises around 8 p.m. and an app isn’t needed to spot it. It looks like a huge star in the south sky after rising. It moves toward the west as the night passes, as well as Saturn.
Jupiter and the moon will have a close approach Sunday and I mistakenly reported that it wouldn’t be visible since it occurs after sunrise, but that’s incorrect. From San Mateo, both will be visible in the east around 8:48 p.m., according to In-The-Sky.org. They’ll reach their highest point just after 2 a.m. Monday and will remain observable until sunrise.
As noted earlier, September’s full moon is also known as the Corn Moon since this is when corn is harvested. Other similar full moon names are Corn Maker Moon, used by the Western Abenaki, Indigenous people who were in southeastern Quebec and northern New England, and the Corn Harvest Moon, from the Dakota, Native American people.
Look Up appears in the weekend edition. If you have any astronomical questions or facts you’d like to share email news@smdailyjournal.com with the subject line “Look Up.”
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
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PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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