Musical pairing – Shine On Harvest Moon by Leon Redbone
Do you know where the term ‘Harvest Moon’ comes from? Well, the full moon that is closest to the Autumnal Equinox used to help farmers bring in the harvest. The moon rises sooner after sunset at this time of year, so the farmers could be productive even at night; this full moon became known as the Harvest Moon.
This year, on September 23rd, we were treated to a “Super Harvest moon” – a term used when the night of the full harvest moon is the same night as the equinox. It was the first Super Harvest Moon since 1991.
And if you think that a full moon low on the horizon is larger than when it is high in the sky, well this is apparently an optical illusion called “moon illusion”. The size of the moon is the same, but our brains perceive it as larger when it is low in the sky. These photos were taken by The Professor right off our back deck – aren’t they amazing?!
Here’s one more piece of Harvest Moon trivia: In 1908, Jack Norworth (who also wrote “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”) debuted the song “Shine on Harvest Moon” – one hundred years later, Leon Redbone performed it. Enjoy!
Ooh!
Thanks for sharing such beauty with us! A double whammy to have the harvest moon & equinox, Super indeed.
It’s so beautiful!!! The music is awesome, too. Listening to this song from my office desk under a halo of flourescent lights, it’s taken me to an entirely different place. :o)
So thanks! Happy week,
[K]
Had no idea!
And I love the music!
Thank you for this information and the wonderful music to accompany your post. I had heard we were having a harvest moon, but I didn’t know anything about it. You caught some beautiful shots of the evening. Thank you for sharing them with us.
Well, there you go! I didn’t know the story behind a Harvest Moon, but, it makes sense. Beautiful pics. Well done Professor!
A beautiful and informative post. I didn’t know anything about that… so thank you for sharing.
Hmm, I think your super harvest moon corresponds so nicely to your most recent post on super man, aka the professor!
My hubby tells me this fact every time I exclaim how wonderful and big the moon looks when it’s rising in the east. The sky is a spectacular illusionist, eh?
who knew this?? I didn’t even if its well known fact that I belong to dumb people category!
I was so bummed that I couldn’t really see this because a very violent thunderstorm rolled through that night–I had just gotten my hair cut and was walking home and kept seeing these huge cracks of lightning, but it wasn’t really raining until I was two blocks from my building.
Lovely photos! I think I remember the last Super Harvest Moon because I was so weirded out by how big it looked on the horizon.