This Wednesday, September 13, 2000, is the next night the moon rises as a full moon. But what makes this moonrise so special is that it will be what is called the "Harvest Moon."

What is that, you might ask? Simply the full moon rising closest to the September equinox, which is September 22. BUT, due to orbital relationships at this time, there is yet another way in which this particular moonrise is special: normally, the moon rises 50 minutes later each night. During equinox however, it rises only 30 minutes later, and does so during a window of a couple days on either side of the equinox. What this meant back in the days before brilliant headlights on tractors and such was that there was a lesser period of darkness between sunset and moonrise; farmers could see to harvest well into the night.

What might make this week's full moonrise particularly interesting is a large sandstorm in progress in the Sahara, as well as all the fires currently in the western U.S. There are a lot of aerosols floating about to scatter light; look for a "bloated" and possibly pink Harvest moon this Wednesday!

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Anakin
[monger=ff0000,ffffff]Holonet Jedi Master[/monger]
Forum Administrator

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[monger=ff0000,ffff00]I'm from the Lou and I'm proud...[/monger]