A big & bright supermoon will light up NYC skies on Thursday, September 28th. Known as the Harvest Moon, it will peak at 5:58 am on Friday, September 29th.
The Harvest Moon follows last month’s Blue Moon which was the closest supermoon of 2023, with a distance of just 222,043 miles from Earth. A closer supermoon than last month’s wont occur for the next two years (until November 5, 2025) in which it will be 221,817 miles from Earth, according to The Farmer’s Almanac.
The upcoming lunar spectacle got its name because it is the closest full moon to the fall equinox. The Harvest moon will rise around the same time each night for a consecutive few evenings. Historically, this gives farmers extra moonlight to finish their harvests.
Still not really sure what a supermoon is? A supermoon is a celestial event that describes the moon at its closest proximity to the Earth on its orbit (or reaches “perigee”). This occurrence is more popular during full moons, as these are the ones we can see and cause the moon to appear bigger and brighter than usual. However, when a supermoon occurs during a new moon they’re not visible to the eye unless they’re causing an eclipse.
According to the Farmer’s Almanac, “A supermoon exceeds the disk size of an average-sized Moon by up to 8% and the brightness of an average-sized full Moon by some 16%.”
The Harvest Moon is the last supermoon of 2023. Therefore, we won’t see another supermoon until 2024.