Two full moons: Oct 1 and Oct 31

SOUTH MISSISSIPPI (WLOX) - The first day of October brings clear skies to much of the Gulf Coast region which will be perfect for viewing the Full Harvest Moon.

Look for the Harvest Moon to rise at 6:59 PM Thursday over South Mississippi. The Harvest moon will set Friday at 7:24 AM.

The Harvest Moon is named for how it assists farmers gathering crops with extra moonlight despite diminishing daylight hours.

The Harvest Moon is one of the only moons that is not tied to a specific calendar month. Instead, it is always determined by when the Autumn Equinox occurs.

The date of the equinox changes back and forth by a few days every year. And the date of the full moon changes each month since each calendar month has 30 or 31 days and the lunar cycle is around 28 days long. So, with all these dates in flux, the Harvest Moon can be in either September or October in a given year.

In 2020, the autumnal equinox was on September 22. So, September’s full moon on the 2nd was 20 days away from the equinox. And October’s full moon on the 1st was 8 days away from the equinox. Thus, the October 1st full moon was determined to be 2020′s Harvest Moon.

Anyway, the next three full moons will be the Hunter’s Moon on Saturday October 31st, the Beaver Moon on November 30th, and the Cold Moon on December 29th.

This year’s Hunter’s moon will be on Halloween. And, bonus, it’ll be a blue moon! Remember, blue moons are blue in name only and not in color. Any time you get two full moons in one calendar month, you always call the second full moon a blue moon.

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