Special October Harvest Moon Is Filling The Sky

ATLANTA, GA — For the next few nights, this year's harvest moon will be shining over Georgia.

It’s not a supermoon — the phenomenon when the moon appears larger than it is — but the harvest moon will be something special to see. Described by NASA as resembling a great pumpkin, the harvest moon reached its full phase at 2:40 p.m. on Thursday.

In metro Atlanta, sunset on Friday will be at 7:14 p.m. and moonrise will be at 8:14 p.m. The forecast for Friday night calls for partly cloudy skies, so hopefully we'll be able to get a good look.

According to astronomer's the harvest moon is the full moon closest to the autumn equinox, which this year came on Sept. 22. That means the harvest moon is usually September's full moon. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

But this year it fell in early October — the first time that's happened since 2009.

For that reason, this year’s September full moon went by some of the other monikers — the corn moon, the fruit moon or the barley moon in North America. And, usually, October’s full moon is known as the hunter’s moon and, less frequently, the blood moon or the sanguine moon, according to nightskyinfo.com.

Civilizations around the world have used the moon phases to keep track of time, and each one has a special name — or several, depending on regional folklore and seasonal characteristics. Native Americans called the September moon the harvest moon because that’s when crops matured.

Regardless of what they’re called, autumn full moons are special. Earthsky.org explains it:

“Around the time of the autumn equinox, the ecliptic — or the path of the sun, moon, and planets – makes a narrow angle with the horizon at sunset.“Every full moon rises around the time of sunset, and on average each successive moonrise comes about 50 minutes later daily. But, on September and October evenings – because of the narrow angle of the ecliptic to the horizon — the moon rises sooner than the average.“So, instead of rising 50 minutes later in the days after full moon, the waning gibbous moon might rise only 35 minutes later, or thereabouts, for several days in a row (at mid-northern latitudes). At far northern latitudes — like at Fairbanks, Alaska — the moon rises about 15 minutes later for days on end.”

This was important in the days before tractors and combines with lights, because it meant farmers could harvest under the moonlight.

Here's a look at what time sunset and moonrise will be the next few nights, as well as the evening weather forecasts, so you can get out and take a look at the harvest moon yourself:

• Friday: Sunset 7:14 p.m., Moonrise 8:14 p.m., partly cloudy
• Saturday: Sunset 7:13 p.m., Moonrise 8:55 p.m., a chance of showers and thunderstorms
• Sunday: Sunset 7:12 p.m., Moonrise 9:40 p.m., showers and possibly a thunderstorm

Photo by David McNew/Getty Images News/Getty Images