It’s Just a Phase

The Full Moon nearest our Autumn equinox (a “Harvest Moon” - not to be confused with the Neil Young early 1990’s album of the same name) is yellow so that the farmers back in the day would have more light for bringing their last crops before Winter. 

As you’re probably already aware, all Full Moons rise around Sunset, therefore there is no long, dark period before we see them. The main difference between your “Harvest” moon and a regular, run-of-the-mill Full Moon is the time of day between subsequent nightly risings.

Moon risings after an “ordinary” Full Moon are supposedly 50 minutes later each night, but only 30 minutes later each night after our Moon in question. So my original paragraph was only half tongue-in-cheek & has roots in folklore; but Copernicus says it is not the reason “why” and that it’s Earth’s narrower angle of orbit around the Sun (ecliptic) at that time of year that make for the earlier moons that follow this one.

It has been said that this moon is no bigger, brighter or yellower than any other Full Moon, but this is just when people want to notice it. We can compare our upcoming Full Moons to check the validity of that statement by using the table of dates included at the end of this post.

Also of note would be that none of the above applies to peoples of the Southern Hemisphere who experience these Moons during our Spring and it’s difficult to Harvest so soon after a snow. They must get a “Planters Moon”.

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Got Moon?
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I was absolutely blown away by the size of the last Full Moon when it was breaking over the horizon! It seemed to be rivaling for attention against the morning Sunrise.

When la Luna (or any celestial body for that fact) is close to the horizon, we are looking at it through more of our own atmosphere (and consequently more particles) than when it is closer to the meridian. Our atmosphere deflects the bluish-white portion of the light before it can get to our retina while the reddish frequencies of the spectrum get through. It short: It’s our perception.

The Moon may apparently be the largest object in our night sky, but due to Venus’ closer proximity to our Day Star and her permanent layer of sulfuric acid cloud-cover reflecting 60% of the Suns light back into space, I would have to say that she is the brightest object in our night sky. Also, since Celena is so high when I look out my back door around this time, Venus is the first celestial object I lay eyes on, but once in a Blue Moon I’ll catch Orion.