Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Latrobe on September 25, 2007, 10:06:37 PM
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Tommorrow night (Sept 26) there will be a harvest moon! I've only seen it once when I was 5 or 6 or somewhere around there, so apparently it's rare to see. I'll be getting my share of pictures tomorrow and I'll post them here when I can.
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They happen every September.
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Originally posted by Golfer
They happen every September.
Yup. Now. Without looking it up.
How many know why its called the Harvest moon?
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Dust.
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What he said. All the dust in the air when the crops are taken down gets up into the atmosphere. Refracts the light a bit and makes the moon seem bigger and only the more "powerful" shades (reddish orangeish shades) penetrate. Same reason the sky is blue looking straight up but the light changes in evenings.
A quick google image search yielded this fine example:
(http://k43.pbase.com/o4/95/519495/1/54578562.harvest_moon_crop_2.jpg)
I'm more partial to the October moons (I think they're purtier) and I've also sought the cute furry 4 legged and delicious creatures known as Deer since I was 8 years old.
I'm somewhat saddened at the state of the country that folks actually think a Harvest moon is rare and don't know a little trivia like this. More stuff that I thought everyone knew turns out not to be the case...sad.:(
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The angle of the moon's travel is more closely aligned with the horizon at this time of year so that the time to moonrise is relatively shorter from day to day. You have the benefit of the moonlight to work in the fields. The next full moon in October is called the Hunter's moon for similar reasons. At least that's the way I remember it from Astronomy class.
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Mind your tongue with that fancy scientific theory. This is the time for legend, lore and old wives tales.
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Aren't the dust particles responsible for the color, while the relative position to the horizon is responsible for the larger appearance? I don't believe the dust would affect the apparent size, at least not nearly so much as the atmosphere does.
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I'd think anything to do with affecting the light getting through would have at least some effect on the apparent size of the object. Just like you can look at the sun on late summer evenings and not go blind. Perhaps it's a misconception that just happened to coincide with the position of the moon contributing to the view and the particles the color. That does make sense.
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I've seen a "harvest" moon every morning here in Iraq... lots of dust in the air round here.
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Wiki..............
The Harvest Moon is the full moon nearest to the autumnal equinox, which occurs (in the northern hemisphere) on or about September 23rd, and in the southern hemisphere on or about March 21st. Its physical characteristics - rising time, path across the sky - are similar to those of the Hunter's moon.
All full moons have their own special characteristics, based primarily on the whereabouts of the ecliptic in the sky at the time of year that these moons are visible. The full moons of September, October and November as seen from the northern hemisphere - which correspond to the full moons of March, April and May as seen from the southern hemisphere - are well known in the folklore of the sky. All full moons rise around the time of sunset. However, although in general the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, as it moves in orbit around Earth, the Harvest Moon and Hunter's Moon are special, because around the time of these full moons, the time difference between moonrise on successive evenings is shorter than usual. In other words, the moon rises approximately 30 minutes later, from one night to the next, as seen from about 40 degrees N. or S. latitude, for several evenings around the full Hunter's or Harvest Moons. Thus there is no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise around the time following these full moons. In times past this feature of these autumn moons was said to help farmers working to bring in their crops (or, in the case of the Hunter's Moon, hunters tracking their prey). They could continue being productive by moonlight even after the sun had set. Hence the name Harvest (or Hunter's) Moon.
The reason for the shorter-than-usual rising time between successive moonrises around the time of the Harvest and Hunter's Moon is that the ecliptic - or plane of Earth's orbit around the sun - makes a narrow angle with respect to the horizon in the evening in autumn.
The Harvest Moon can come before or after the autumnal equinox. It is simply the full moon closest to that equinox. About once every four years it occurs in October, depending on the cycles of the moon. Currently, the latest the Harvest Moon can occur is on October 8. Between 1900 and 2010 the Harvest Moon falls on October 7 in 1930, 1949, 1987, 2006, and on October 8 in 1911.
Many cultures celebrate with gatherings, festivals, and rituals that are intricately attuned to the Harvest Moon or Hunter's Moon.
It is claimed by some that the Harvest Moon seems to be somehow bigger or brighter or yellower in color than other full moons. This is an illusion. The yellow or golden or orangish or reddish color of the moon shortly after it rises is a physical effect, which stems from the fact that, when you see the moon low in the sky, you are looking at it through a greater amount of atmosphere than when the moon is overhead. The atmosphere scatters the bluish component of white moonlight (which is really reflected sunlight) but allows the reddish component of the light to travel a straighter path to your eyes. Hence all moons (and stars and planets) look reddish when they are low in the sky.
As for the large size of a full moon when seen low in the sky, it is true that the human eye sees a low hanging moon as being larger than one that rides high in the sky. This is known as a Moon Illusion and can be seen with any full moon. It can also be seen with constellations; in other words, a constellation viewed low in the sky will appear bigger than when it is high in the sky.
The Harvest Moon is also known as the Wine Moon, the Singing Moon and the Elk Call Moon. In myth and folklore the full moon of each month is given a name. There are many variations but the following list gives the most widely known names:
* January - Wolf moon
* February - Ice moon
* March - Storm moon
* April - Growing moon
* May - Hare moon
* June - Mead moon
* July - Hay moon
* August - Corn moon
* September - Harvest moon
* October - Hunter's moon
* November - Snow moon
* December - Winter moon
The third full moon in a season with four full moons is called a blue moon, as described in the Maine Farmer's Almanac. Until recently it was commonly misunderstood that the second full moon in a month was the blue moon. However, it was recently discovered by Sky and Telescope Magazine and reported on NPR that the interpretation of a blue moon as the second full moon of the month was erroneously reported in an issue of Sky and Telescope Magazine dating back to 1946 and then perpetuated by other media.
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I always assumed it was so in the old days when everyone had to work their tails off in the fields they got the extra time in to be able to harvest past sun-down because the light from that particular moon was so full & bright.
*edit* I guess that kind of hard work isn't just 'in the old days.' I'm sure the farmers still work their tails off ~ that's not necessarily what I meant I guess.
*edit* oh, dang, Jackal already said my answer. :)
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Originally posted by Dadano
Dust.
Nailed it!:aok
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Originally posted by hubsonfire
Aren't the dust particles responsible for the color, while the relative position to the horizon is responsible for the larger appearance? I don't believe the dust would affect the apparent size, at least not nearly so much as the atmosphere does.
Yes, the dust particles are responsible for the color. You'll also find that dust is what also effects the color of the Sun when it rises and sets.
I think the size of the moon has to do when it moves closer to the earth :cool:.
The position in the sky also has to do with it. The lower it is, the more orange it will appear (because of the dust) and you'll notice when it get higher in the sky, the color changes back to normal.
:aok
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Originally posted by Jack16
Yes, the dust particles are responsible for the color. You'll also find that dust is what also effects the color of the Sun when it rises and sets.
I think the size of the moon has to do when it moves closer to the earth :cool:.
The position in the sky also has to do with it. The lower it is, the more orange it will appear (because of the dust) and you'll notice when it get higher in the sky, the color changes back to normal.
:aok
The perceived size of the moon when it is close to the horizon is just that, perception. Its called The Ponzo Effect (http://starryskies.com/articles/dln/1-96/ponzo.html)
The Ponzo Effect has to do with the way our eyes judge distances and sizes. Our brain and eyes work together to interpret what we see. If we look outside and see a child and a house, and they both appear the same size, we instantly interpret this as the house being much farther away than the child. We don�t consciously think about this process, we just do it, and it usually works pretty well.
When we look at a rising full moon near the horizon, we see a similar effect. When the full moon is close to the horizon, our eyes and brain then have objects such as trees or buildings to compare the moon with. When the full moon is high in the sky, our brain has nothing to compare it with except maybe stars, and they are just points of light. For whatever reason, when we have something to compare the moon with near the horizon, it appears larger.
This is an optical illusion that wasn�t explained until the early part of this century. It is named after the Italian psychologist who figured out this phenomenon, Mario Ponzo. Ponzo, who lived from 1882 to 1960, concluded that the apparent difference was purely psychological, that the actual size of the moon at the horizon is the same as when it is overhead. It only seems larger at the horizon because our brains are playing a trick on us.
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Originally posted by FBBone
The perceived size of the moon when it is close to the horizon is just that, perception. Its called The Ponzo Effect (http://starryskies.com/articles/dln/1-96/ponzo.html)
Thanks for the info FBBone.:cool: :aok