Harvest Moon: When To See Summer’s Last Full Moon Over Martinez

MARTINEZ, CA — The full harvest moon rising over the East Bay this weekend is truly something to sing about. Musicians from the Tin Pan Alley Era to modern times have crooned about it — and with good reason.

So, whether your musical tastes run from “Shine On, Harvest Moon” from the “Ziegfeld Follies” or Neil Young’s classic “Harvest Moon,” you should definitely plan to dance or otherwise play under it Friday night and Saturday morning.

That’s weather permitting, of course. AccuWeather calls for partly cloudy skies over Martinez.

The harvest moon is a favorite on the lunar calendar because the best times to view it are so reliable. Normally moonrise is about 50 minutes later each night of a full or nearly full moon phase. But the full harvest moon rises only an average of 25 minutes later each night in the United States, and as 10 and 20 minutes later farther north in Canada and Europe, according to NASA.

In Martinez, moonrise is at 7:31 p.m. local time Friday, 7:59 p.m. local time Saturday and 8:25 p.m. local time Sunday. The moon will appear full a couple of days on either side of the full moon.

It will reach 100 percent illumination around 2:59 a.m. local time Saturday.

The absolute best times to take in a view is when it appears over the horizon Friday or Saturday evening. That’s when what NASA calls the “moon illusion” kicks in, a trick the brain plays on the mind in processing visual information.

“Go out on the night of the full moon and find a good spot to watch it rise. It can be breathtaking, eliciting an awestruck ‘Wow!’ from any skywatcher,” NASA explains. “When we observe the Moon near the horizon, it often looks HUGE — whether it’s peeking over the shoulder of a distant mountain, rising out of the sea, hovering behind a cityscape, or looming over a thicket of trees.

“But here’s the thing: it’s all in your head. Really. …”

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The harvest moon doesn’t always rise in September, as it will this year. The harvest moon, a moniker assigned because it coincides with the fall harvest across North America, is the one that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox, which this year is on Thursday, Sept. 22.

The harvest moon is almost always in September, though there have been years when it occurred in October.

“At equinox, due to the Earth’s tilt, the Moon rises a bit sooner than it does at other times of the year,” the Farmers’ Almanac explained. “As a result, farmers and gardeners receive extra light for gathering crops.”

Sometimes, the harvest moon looks more orange, but that has nothing to do with it being a harvest moon.

Both the moon and sun look redder when they’re near the horizon, according to Phys.org, which explained, “The reason for this is because we’re seeing them through the maximum thickness of atmosphere, which absorbs blue light and transmits red light.”

The next full moon will be the “hunter’s moon” on Oct. 9.

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