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• No matter where you live worldwide, however, you'll see a full-looking moon shining from dusk until dawn tonight. It'll rise in the east around sunset, climb highest up around midnight and will set in the west around sunrise. At the vicinity of full moon, the moon - as always - stays out all night long. Is tonight's moon the Harvest Moon? Sure!
• Why are the full moons so special in autumn? 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 much sooner than the average. So, instead of rising 50 minutes later in the days after full moon, the waning moon might rise only 30 minutes later, or less, for several days in a row (at mid-northern latitudes). At far northern latitudes - like at Fairbanks, Alaska - the moon rises about six minutes later for days on end.
• That fact was important to people in earlier times. For farmers bringing in the harvest, before the days of tractor lights, it meant there was no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise for several days after full moon. And that meant farmers could work on in the fields, bringing in the crops by moonlight. Hence the name Harvest Moon.
• At our mid-northern latitudes, watch for the Harvest Moon to shine from dusk until dawn for the next few to several days, starting tonight. Enjoy the 2012 Harvest Moon!