Celestia Forums

can someone explain me what the "Harvest moon"(or something like that) is? i read about it on space.com some days ago, but i didn't understand what it is.
i think that this is happening today...

In autumn, when the moon is past full, the days afterwards when it's going towards last quarter, it rises only slightly later each day, but sets much later and travels higher through the sky. This is because it gets into the same part of the zodiac the sun is in in midsummer.

This gives rise to long, moonlit nights. Alowing farmers of the ancient to harvest during these nights.

thank you very much.
so its not that the harvest moon is brighter than other full moons right?

You're welcome.

As far as I know it has nothing to do with the distances between sun, earth and moon.

so, it has nothing really special right?

The special thing about the harvest moon is what julesstoop described - because of the slope of the moon's orbit relative to the horizon during the autumn equinox (northern hemisphere) the near-full moon rises only quarter of an hour later each evening, instead of the usual fifty minutes average. So, unusually, sunlight passes more or less straight into moonlight for several nights in succession - useful for farmers trying to get the autumn harvest in and working late.

Grant

i read in space.com that depending of the latitude, the moon will rise with different delays, and in some regions at the north each day it will even rise earlyer.