When will Louisiana get best view of the Harvest Moon, partial lunar eclipse supermoon tonight

The News Guy

3 months ago

When will Louisiana get best view of the Harvest Moon, partial lunar eclipse supermoon tonight

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Many people anticipate seeing September’s Harvest Moon. If you look to the skies on Tuesday, Sept. 17, you’ll also see a lunar eclipse. Here’s when you’re likely to get the best view in South Louisiana.

The Harvest Moon, also known as the Full Corn Moon, has these two names because of when it occurs. The full moon closest to the date of the Autumnal Equinox is called a Harvest Moon. It’s usually the last full moon of the summer.

Folklore has it that the light from the moon helped guide farmers at night as they were harvesting their crops. The moon rising near sunset provided extra light for farmers working late. Because of the moon’s elliptical orbit around the Earth, that can contribute to a full moon being closer and appearing brighter than at other times.

According to NASA, this will be a supermoon, meaning “a new or full Moon that occurs when the Moon is within 90% of its closest to Earth.”

The Harvest Moon will reach its peak on Tuesday night around 9:35 p.m. CST. Cloud coverage should gradually diminish tonight in the Baton Rouge area. Less clouds will give us a clearer view of this special sight. If you miss it tonight, the moon will still look full through Thursday morning.

The partial lunar eclipse will occur with the Harvest Moon. Only a small section of the moon will be covered by the Earth’s shadow. The moon will begin entering the Earth’s partial shadow at 7:41 p.m. CST. It will reach its peak at 9:44 p.m. CST. The moon will exit Earth’s shadow at 10:16 p.m. CST.

As long as the clouds have mostly cleared, Baton Rouge and south Louisiana residents should be able to see this phenomenon.

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