Back in the early days, people based their lives around the sun and the moon. Their cycles guided them throughout the year, and were considered important for agriculture, and other activities. Today, we have a lot of technical equipment replacing lunar and sun calendars, but the stars, the moon and the sun still fascinate us all.
An enchanting moon can be noticed in the sky before the autumnal equinox, September 22, 2013: the harvest Moon.
EarthSky mentions that
“The moon reaches the crest of its full phase at 11:13 Universal Time on September 19 (6:13 a.m. CDT).
In eastern Asia, on the other hand, the moon will turn precisely full after sunset on September 19. In that part of the world, the full Harvest Moon will be said to take place on the night of September 19-20, coinciding with the yearly Mid-Autumn Festival, sometimes called the Moon Festival.”
In what the US is concerned, the exact time for each area is as follows:
“for the time zones in the continental U.S., the full Harvest Moon will arrive on September 19, at precisely 7:13 a.m. EDT, 6:13 a.m. CDT, 5:13 a.m. MDT or 4:13 a.m. PDT. For all but the eastern part of North America, the moon will turn precisely full before sunrise on September 19, 2013.”
Since the astronomers’ definition of a full moon is “that instant when the moon lies most directly opposite the sun for the month,” even if the moon seems to be full all night during this period, there is only a specific moment when we could say with accuracy that we can observe a full moon.