At the end of August, we were treated to a rare super blue moon. Meaning it was the second full moon of the month and it appeared brighter than a normal moon! Our next full moon isn’t a blue moon, but it will still appear big and bright!

The late September full moon is known as the harvest moon because it coincides with the annual crop harvest. This year’s harvest moon will be full on September 29th at 4:57 AM.

This means you can see the moon at full or nearly full, on both Thursday night and Friday night. But the time it will be truly full is around 5 AM Friday morning.

A great time to view the supermoon is near moonrise and moonset because it will appear orange just as the sun does when it’s low in the sky. Thursday night moonrise is at 6:48 PM and moonset is at 7:10 AM Friday morning. Friday night moonrise is at 7:18 PM and it will set Saturday morning at 8:21 AM.

What causes a supermoon?

The simple answer is the moon is closer to Earth. This is caused by the fact that the shape of the moon’s orbit around Earth is NOT a perfect circle. The elliptical orbit means there are times when it is closer and further away from Earth.

When the moon is furthest from Earth in its orbit it is 251,000 miles from Earth and it is 226,000 miles at its closest point in its orbit. That 25,000-mile difference makes the moon appear 30% brighter at its closest vs. at its furthest.

There won’t be any issues with the weather. Both Thursday and Friday nights will feature clear skies and comfortably warm temperatures!

Get out and see our last supermoon of 2023! Our first supermoon in 2024 will be on February 9th!