Talk:Harvest moon
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How can the harvest moon have happened in 2025? I think that sentence requires a re-write.
[edit] Moon names
I'm not very knowledgeable about moon names, but I looked them up and each culture seems to have developed their own names. The names on the article's list, however, seem to be from a mix of various naming systems. -- Kjkolb 14:04, 21 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] blue moon - wrong
the blue moon is:
An older definition for the blue moon is recorded in early issues of the Maine Farmer's Almanac. According to this definition, the blue moon is the third full moon in a season that has four full moons. Why would one want to identify the third full moon in a season of four full moons? The answer is complex, and has to do with the Christian ecclesiastical calendar.
Some years have an extra full moon—thirteen instead of twelve. Since the identity of the moons was important in the ecclesiastical calendar (the Paschal Moon, for example, used to be crucial for determining the date of Easter), a year with a thirteenth moon skewed the calendar, since there were names for only twelve moons. By identifying the extra, thirteenth moon as a blue moon, the ecclesiastical calendar was able to stay on track.
For a fuller explanation see http://www.inconstantmoon.com/cyc_blue.htm. For more background information on the controversy over the two definitions of blue moon, see the Sky and Telescope article, "What's a Blue Moon?" In it they explain how the two different definitions of a blue moon came about—including their own role in introducing the second, modern definition.
copied from http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bluemoon1.html
[edit] Harvest moon
How long does the harvest moon last, and why is it called the harvest moon?
[edit] Harvest Moon in 2006
If the Harvest Moon is the closest to the Autumnal Equinox, then it occurs in October in 2006 as well.
Full Moon on September 7th 2006 18:42 UTC (according to [1])
date +"%s" --date "9/7/2006 18:42 UTC" = 1157654520 seconds since 00:00:00 1970-01-01 UTC
Autumnal Equinox on September 23rd 2006 04:03 UTC (according to [2])
date +"%s" --date "9/23/2006 04:03 UTC" = 1158984180 seconds
Full Moon on October 7th 2006 03:13 UTC (according to [3])
date +"%s" --date "10/7/2006 03:13 UTC" = 1160190780 seconds
- 1158984180 - 1157654520 = 1329660 seconds between September's Full moon and the Autumnal Equinox
- 1160190780 - 1158984180 = 1206600 seconds between the Autumnal Equinox and October's Full Moon
therefore it's closer to October's Full moon than September's in 2006?
(Linux Date function used for time calculations)
- Grey [October 6th 2006 17:24 EDT]
[edit] Closest, or following?
If we accept the aforementioned Sky & Telescope description of the moon names, it sounds like each moon gets named in a sequence with whichever one follows the winter solstice being the Moon After Yule, whichever one follows the spring equinox being the Paschal Moon used in calculating easter, and so forth. (The accuracy of these names is why the Farmer's Almanac [Blue Moon] is the third, rather than fourth, full moon in a season with four - making it the fourth turns out to make there sometimes be a Blue Moon between the Moon Before Yule and Yule.) Such a pattern doesn't also allow a moon to be defined as "closest to the autumn equinox"; it would have to be "after the autumn equinox" or "before the autumn equinox" without being more complicated than my understanding suggests it is. Which is correct?
[edit] Harvest Moon video game disambiguation
Suggested reference and softography of the 'Harvest Moon' series of games.
