Friday, October 6, 2017

Harvest Moon

Last night was the harvest moon. I knew about it but having helped my husband transfer our cold settled Chenin Blanc juice into the fermentation freezer at 9 p.m. I forgot all about it. This morning, as I was getting some muffins ready for our picking crew, I saw the full moon in the western sky and took a photo of it. I know it is not a high resolution photo but, it's what I can do.
According to Earth and Sky, the harvest moon is the full moon closest to the September equinox, and full moon comes at the instant when the moon is 180o from the sun in ecliptic – or celestial – longitude.
National Geographic also says this harvest moon on Thursday night marks the closest full moon to the fall equinox. The last time the harvest moon occurred in October was in 2009 and the next one will be in 2020.
What does that mean? For us, in Connecticut, this instant of full moon came on October 5th at 2:40 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
This is so appropriate for us because this year, our Chenin Blanc harvest (not counting one we did on September 29th) began yesterday. We will harvest another small bolus of grapes today but the majority of the harvest will be on Saturday.

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