Show WHY THE HARVEST MOON september is the month of moonlight poets and imbres zionists at this season of the year have from time immemorial flooded the world with harvest moon imagery pictures of moonlight lovers strolling along moonlit lanes rowing on moonlit rivers in moonlit boats moonlight gleaners cleaners glea ners and the harvest horne home have been painted over and over again in word and color but the why and of the extraordinary brilliance of the queen of night during the period that she is known as the harvest moon has been completely lost sight of by the great majority those who observe the ordinary astronomical phenomena of daily occurrence are familiar with tile the time variations in the CIO moons rising and setting this is due to the direction oi of the moons ap parent path with reference to the horizon of whatever place it is viewed from its distance from the earth and its daily mo tion eastward in right ascension for the first few ew days in every lunar month the uon rises or sets twenty three or oe twenty four minutes later for three or four successive evenings after which the retardation varies from that time to an hour and seventeen minutes and sometimes more in the latitude of now york the afie maximum retardation letai dation is seventy severi minutes and the minimum is twenty three when the retardation retardate dati on is a mij minimum at the time of the full ful I 1 moon tho he light is very powerful farmers 0 ott ell t a a i wv ia vantage 0 of urn a mij night bi brilli brilliancy for several days to 6 harvest garvest their grain september 21 being the autumnal equinox and the full moon occurring nearest that date being usually in the height of harvest time it is called the harvest moon to understand the action of the causes which produce this phenomenon it is necessary to remember that at the time of the autumnal equinox the sun sets exactly in the west and the southern half of the ecliptic or the suns apparent annual path in the sky will then be wholly above the horizon and the northern half entirely below the ecliptic therefore malting making the least possible angle with the horizon in high northern latitudes as in alaska british columbia norway and sweden and the north of scotland the moons path at such times is almost parallel with the horizon and for more than a week she rises at very nearly the same time giving the farmers ample light and time to garner their crops |