Super Harvest Bloody Moon

On September 17, 2024 we’ll have a Super Harvest Bloody Moon.

Kind of a fantastical, creepy name, but those three adjectives each describe a different celestial event, which will coincide in this one moon.

A Harvest Moon is the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox, called that because it gave farmers some extra light to bring in their crops. There’s a Harvest Moon every year, but not often so close to the equinox, on September 22nd.

A supermoon occurs when the full moon coincides with the Moon’s perigee—that’s when it’s nearest Earth in its elliptical orbit. This nearness makes a supermoon 14% bigger and 30% brighter.

The Moon’s perigee doesn’t often line up with the full moon, so supermoons only happen a few times a year.

A blood moon happens only during a lunar eclipse, when the Sun, Earth and Moon are perfectly aligned, and Earth blocks sunlight from reaching the Moon.

Because the Sun is a large light source, sunlight from the red end of the spectrum bends around Earth, which gives the moon a red shade.

This time we’ll have only a partial lunar eclipse, giving the moon a slightly bloody tint.

Nonetheless, it’s very rare that all three of these phenomena happen at once, so make sure you catch it on September 17th—a preview to the full lunar eclipse Super Harvest Blood Moon of 2033.