Harvest Moons

The only thing better than safari nights under a full moon is safari nights in a private camp site under a full moon. The only thing better than safari nights in a private campsite under a full moon is safari nights in a private campsite under the Harvest Moon. You can’t forget a Harvest Moon. It stops you in your tracks. It is enormous, brighter than other moons and color of red lacquer when it rises, all of which are illusions of course. Any object low in the sky appears larger, even star constellations. As for its red color, you look through a greater amount of atmosphere when a moon rides low in the sky, a lesser amount if it’s high in the sky. Atmosphere scatters bluish light but not reddish light which we then see as a kind of filter over the moon.

All full moons rise around sunset, but the general rule is that each moon rises fifty minutes later than the one preceding it because of the moon’s orbit around the earth. The Harvest Moon is special because the time difference between moonrise on consecutive nights is shorter. The lack of darkness between sunset and moonrise was considered an aid to farmers who worked late to bring in their crops. It is from this that the Harvest Moon gets its name.

The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox, which occurs in the Northern Hemisphere in mid to late September. I caught the Harvest Moon in the Northern Hemisphere this year in Canada , on one of Vancouver ’s rare clear nights. In the Southern Hemisphere—which includes sub Saharan Africa—the autumnal equinox falls in March. I have the memory of a Harvest Moon past. I was in the Selous Game Reserve. When the moon appeared on the horizon, it burned red like a fire. This March I hope to admire the Harvest Moon from my private campsite in Tanzania ’s north, surrounded perhaps, if I am very fortunate, by herds of wildebeest and zebra.

06-01-2008