re: #326 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

The BBC has disappointed me with this lede:

NO! The harvest moon is a full moon that appears close to the Autumnal Equinox (in the northern hemisphere), Sept. 22. This happens quite frequently. It has nothing to do with how close the Moon is to Earth, but the timing of the full moon relative to the equinox date.

And the Moon’s orbit is almost circular — the difference between closest approach and farthest distance is only 43,000 or so, compared to an average radius of 384,400 km. So it’s not noticeably bigger or brighter to the naked eye at any point in its orbit.

And let’s not even talk about the “Supermoon” BS that pops up regularly on media.

Well, the moon is going to get so big here in August of next year it will blot out the sun (for a few minutes anyway).

As for the non-technical term supermoon, Wikipedia explains why it is mostly not a thing, though there is a significant visible difference.

A full moon at perigee is visually larger up to 14% in diameter (or about 30% in area) and shines 30% more light than one at its farthest point, or apogee.

en.wikipedia.org

The last so-called supermoon we had here, it was actually quite interesting. My wife and I went up to the village cemetery outside town on Rose Hill to watch the lunar eclipse/supermoon in the middle of the night. (Strictly, the cemetery is closed at sunset, but no one thinks of my wife or me as vandals, just strange.)