New Glarus 360Independent local news and information for greater New Glarus, Wisconsin.
The Moon That Used to Buy Another Hour
Tonight's Harvest Moon will rise over a New Glarus area countryside already deep into fall work, but the light that once helped farmers stretch the day now serves a different purpose: less necessity, more reminder of what harvest used to be.
The Harvest Moon rises over southern Wisconsin tonight, arriving at a moment when daylight and moonlight nearly trade places. Around Madison, the moon is expected to rise at 6:35 p.m., about 12 minutes before sunset at 6:47 p.m. For a few minutes, the sun will be fading in the west while an almost perfectly full moon climbs the eastern sky.
The moon reached peak illumination at 11:49 a.m. CDT today, while it was still below the horizon in Wisconsin. It is called the Harvest Moon because it is the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox, which arrived Tuesday evening. That does not always make it a September moon; in some years, the October full moon falls closer to the equinox and takes the name instead.
The name once had a practical meaning. Around the autumn equinox, the moon rises relatively soon after sunset for several evenings in a row, reducing the stretch of darkness between the end of daylight and moonrise. Before tractor headlights, yard lights and modern farm machinery, that extra natural light could help extend the harvest day.
It is the kind of advantage that has largely disappeared from modern farming. But the moon itself has not.
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