The sky will put on a spectacular show next week. 

The Harvest supermoon, which will appear 14 percent larger, will rise on Tuesday, September 17 and experience a partial lunar eclipse when a piece of it falls into Earth’s shadow.

Not only will a part of the full moon look darker, but the lunar surface is likely to shine a blood red color because the only sunlight reaching it passes through Earth’s atmosphere. The moon will be visible starting around 7pm ET and the partial eclipse begins at 8:41pm ET, lasting until just after midnight. A supermoon only occurs when the moon is at its closest distance to Earth in its elliptical orbit, referred to as the ‘perigee, at 226,000 miles away. 

The moon is typically 238,900 miles from our planet.

The closer location makes our natural satellite appear 30 percent brighter compared with when it is furthest away. 

Although the moon reaches its perigee during every 27-day orbit around the earth, supermoons only occur about three to four times per year. While ‘supermoon,’ will not be found in an astronomical dictionary, the term is used to describe a full moon that comes within at least ’90 percent of perigee,’ according to NASA’s website.

Next week’s full moon earned its name from early American agriculture.

The intense illumination allowed for the extension of natural light that contributed to one or several days supported with additional time for harvesting of fall crops surrounding the autumnal equinox.

Although we are no longer agriculturally reliant on the moon’s light, we have still kept the term to refer to the supermoon that occurs during this time every year. 

But the 2024 Harvest moon coincides with a lunar eclipse, which happens during the full moon phase and with annual frequency of four-to-seven times per year, according to NASA’s website. 

Similar to a solar eclipse, a total lunar eclipse involves a perfect planetary alignment involving the Earth, moon, and sun, resulting in the blockage of the sun’s rays on the moon’s surface.

The alignment of the earth’s shadow, or umbra, causes a dimming effect of a traditional full moon brightness that can result in red and orange hues reflected on the moon’s surface depending on the concentration of dust from the viewing point in the earth’s atmosphere.

The next total lunar eclipse will take place on March 14, 2025 just preceding the spring equinox.

A partial lunar eclipse, as will be visible for the supermoon lunar events on September 18, is the imperfect alignment of the sun, the Earth, and moon, resulting in the moon passing through only part of Earth’s umbra.

Partial lunar eclipses are visibly characterized by first the growing and then receding of earth’s umbra upon the moon without ever fully covering the entire surface of the moon.

When the full moon is low, it has a larger and more brilliant appearance, comparatively to it’s peak height. This phenomenon is known as a moon illusion and is a something to keep in mind when trying to photograph the upcoming lunar events. 

Using a standard smartphone, Astronomers and photographers recommend disabling flash, activating night mode (if you have the available feature), reducing your exposure, and zooming in to enlarge details for enhanced clarity of the already-huge supermoon.

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