Full Harvest Moon Tonight

It is the Harvest Moon!  On gilded vanes

And roofs of villages, on woodland crests,

And their aerial neighborhoods of nests

Deserted, on the curtained window-panes

Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes,

And harvest-fields, its mystic splendor rests!

Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,

With the last sheaves return the laboring wains!

Harvest Moon

(1833)

Samuel Palmer

(1805-1881)

English painter
Image courtesy/Fine Art America

This morning the Full Harvest Moon reached peak illumination at 5:58 A.M. EDT.
My view, however, was unfortunately obscured by clouds and rain showers,
but, I did see the moonrise on Thursday night and it was simply beautiful!

The rising of the Harvest Moon often occurs during the corn harvest.
In times past,  the silvery brilliance of the moon provided light for laborers
 bundling sheaves of corn through the night, which was a common practice
during harvest season, as portrayed in the painting above.

Tonight's moon will be the last in a succession of Super Moons for this year.
Luna will be joined in the sky by two of  earth's largest neighbors, Jupiter
and Saturn, as well as the smallest, the planet Mercury.

I am not sure the skies will clear off tonight here in my neck of the woods, but,
 I hope you'll able to see the moon where you're at my fellow sky watchers!

🌕 Shine on, Harvest Moon! 🌕

"The Harvest Moon"
Excerpt from the poem by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807-1882)
American poet and educator