PENNSYLVANIA, USA — The fall equinox is just around the corner, with the new season officially beginning this upcoming Sunday morning—September 22nd.
Many associate the fall with the harvest of all kinds of crops, like pumpkins, apples, and squash.
Before electricity, farmers relied on the brilliance of the full moon to aid in their harvesting during the evening hours, and thus, the full moon closest to the equinox is called the “Harvest Moon.”
The Harvest Moon will be full officially on Tuesday night at 10:34 PM and will appear more than 90% full two days before and two days after.
This will be the second of four supermoons in a row, appearing on average 7% bigger and 15% brighter than a typical full moon. Only one-quarter of all full moons are supermoons, according to NASA.
The moon will also pass through both the earth’s outer shadow and a part of its inner shadow on Tuesday evening into early Wednesday morning, causing a partial lunar eclipse. The eclipse’s peak will occur at 10:44 PM on Tuesday, with 8% of the moon in the earth’s inner shadow, appearing like a bite has been taken out of the top of the Moon’s disk.
With the development of Potential Tropical Cyclone (PTC) Eight off the coast of the Carolinas—expected by the National Hurricane Center to become Tropical Storm Helene—a large swath of the Eastern United States will unfortunately have cloud cover obscuring the skies on Tuesday evening, including here in Pennsylvania. Thus, it would be best to enjoy the nearly full Harvest Moon on Monday evening.
The full moon will also likely amplify storm surge from PTC 8 along the Carolina coastline, with 1-3 feet of inundation expected at the shore.