Harvest Moon Trail
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Mike Cohea
Famed in festival, story, and song the best known
full moon is the Harvest Moon.
For northern hemisphere dwellers that's a traditional name of the
full moon nearest the September equinox.
Seen from Saunderstown,
Rhode Island, planet Earth, this
Harvest Moon left a broad streak of warm hues as it rose through a twilight
sky over the Newport Bridge.
On September 20 its trail was captured in a single 22 minute exposure
using a dense filter and a digital camera.
Only two days later the September equinox
marked a change of season and the beginning of autumn in the north.
In fact, recognizing a season as the time
between solstice and equinox,
this Harvest Moon was the
fourth full moon of the season,
coming just before the astronomical end of northern summer.