Sky Watch: Enjoying the Harvest Moon

If you're looking to score points with your sweetie, here's a great idea.

Late on the afternoon of Wednesday or Thursday, Sept. 18 or 19, pack a romantic picnic and a blanket, and head toward a hilltop with a nice, clear view of both the eastern and western horizons. Oh, and don't forget to take your sweetie with you.

After enjoying a gorgeous sunset, turn around and face the opposite direction. There you'll witness an equally beautiful sight: the rising of the famous Harvest Moon.

Many myths surround the Harvest Moon. Some believe it appears larger and redder than normal, but this just isn't true. Much like the sun, the moon always appears redder when rising, since its light must pass through a greater path of atmosphere on its way to our eyes.

As for its apparent immensity, it actually appears no larger than at any other time we see the moon near the horizon. Its seemingly huge size is caused by an optical trick known as the Moon Illusion.

No, the "Harvest" moon is simply a name given to the full moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox -- the beginning of autumn -- that occurs this year on Sept. 22.

And despite what some might think, the Harvest Moon represents more than just an opportunity for hopeless romantics to spoon, according to the lyrics of the early 20th-century popular song.

For ages, the light of this full moon offered practical value to farmers who used it to extend into the early evening their harvesting of crops that were traditionally ready for gathering at this time of year.

In fact, the Harvest Moon isn't the only full moon to have a name. Native Indians of North America had names for each one of the year. For example, every Algonquin tribe knew the full moon of June as the Strawberry Moon, while Europeans called it the Rose Moon -- perhaps because its relatively low altitude paints it with a pinkish hue. And some native tribes knew the December full moon as the Cold Moon or the Long Nights Moon because, at that time of year, the nights are longest and darkest, and the winter cold begins to fasten its grip.

Whatever we call it, the full moon is always impressive. Even the unaided eye or binoculars can reveal that the lunar surface is not uniformly bright but, instead, has a mottled appearance.

We know the lighter areas of our moon as mountainous or heavily cratered highlands; the darker areas are roughly circular in shape and are large plains of solidified magma. Some early sky watchers believed these were lunar oceans, and named them "mare" or "seas," a name they still carry today, even though we know the moon is a dry and barren world.

This month, the moon officially achieves its "full" phase at 7:13 a.m. on Sept. 19, but will actually appear full to the eye on the night before and after this.

OK, enough of all this science and history stuff. Now get out there and make some wonderful new memories under the silvery light of the Harvest Moon.