Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Monday, September 12th.  The sun will rise at 7:17.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 41 minutes, setting at 7:59.   The moon, at full today, will rise at 7:43 this evening.

Today’s full moon is the famous Harvest Moon, the nearest full moon to the autumnal equinox.  This is a time of  the full and waning gibbous moons in the next few days rising in twilight.  In the old days before electric lights it helped farmers by effectively lengthening the hours of light to gather in the crops.  The moon on average rises 50 minutes later each night.  The interval between tonight’s moonrise and tomorrow’s will be 22 minutes.  The interval between Tuesday and Wednesday will be 24 minutes, between Wednesday and Thursday, 27 minutes.  The instant of full moon today is actually past, at 5:26 this morning.  The fact that the rising moon appears orange has nothing to do with the Harvest Moon.  Like the sun, it’s always orange or red near the horizon.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.