Full Hunter's Moon extends waning daylight
Discuss Print Me Email to FriendTonight is Tuesday, Oct 14 2008
The full Hunter’s Moon turns precisely full at 20:02 (8:02 p.m.) Universal Time or 3:02 p.m. Central Daylight Time today. As the moon rises above our (North American) horizon around sunset tonight, it’ll be a touch past full moon. But the moon will look plenty full as it lights the sky from dusk till dawn for the next few nights!
The full Hunter’s Moon is the full moon that immediately follows the full Harvest Moon. Both of these full moons are known for ushering several nights of dusk-till-dawn moonlight. In olden times, farmers and hunters took advantage of this seasonal boon of moonlight to compensate for the diminishing autumn daylight.
On the night of any full moon, the moon rises around sunset and sets around sunrise, lighting the sky from dusk till dawn. On the average, the moon rises some 50 minutes later daily. In the northern hemisphere, however, the lag time between successive moonrises is reduced to a yearly low around the time of the September and October full moons. At far northern latitudes in particular, this reduced lag time results in several nights of dusk-till-dawn moonlight.
The table below tells how much later the moon rises daily from October 14-17 at Seattle and Anchorage.
Tale of Two Cities: lag time of moonrise
| Date | Seattle, Washington | Anchorage, Alaska |
| Oct 14 | 21 minutes later | 0 minutes later |
| Oct 15 | 26 minutes later | 2 minutes later |
| Oct 16 | 34 minutes later | 5 minutes later |
| Oct 17 | 44 minutes later | 16 minutes later |
