Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2024 September 20
Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava
Explanation: For northern hemisphere dwellers, September's Full Moon was the Harvest Moon. On September 17/18 the sunlit lunar nearside passed into shadow, just grazing Earth's umbra, the planet's dark, central shadow cone, in a partial lunar eclipse. Over the two and half hours before dawn a camera fixed to a tripod was used to record this series of exposures as the eclipsed Harvest Moon set behind Spiš Castle in the hazy morning sky over eastern Slovakia. Famed in festival, story, and song, Harvest Moon is just the traditional name of the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox. According to lore the name is a fitting one. Despite the diminishing daylight hours as the growing season drew to a close, farmers could harvest crops by the light of a full moon shining on from dusk to dawn. This September's Harvest Moon was also known to some as a supermoon, a term becoming a traditional name for a full moon near perigee.
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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