The full harvest moon in October is a supermoon. Here’s what you need to know

Keep your eyes along the horizon on Monday evening to see the first supermoon of the year.

The full moon of October, also called The Harvest Moon, will be visible from Monday evening to Tuesday early. The silver orb will be at its maximum around 11:48 p.m. on Monday, according to Earthsky.

“The joy of a full moon is that if it is cloudy in your neighborhood on Monday evening on Monday evening, you can watch Tuesday, and the moon will always be quite full,” said Noah Petro, scientist of the project for the Mission Artemis III of NASA, which aims to land the astronauts near the Lunar South Pole in 2027.

The nickname the Harvest Moon indicates that it is the full moon event closest to the fall equinox, or the first day of fall. Historically, the bright light of the Moon helped farmers end their crops for the year, according to the former farmer in Almanaque.

This moon will be the first of three consecutive supermoons this year. A supermoon occurs when the moon reaches the perigee, or its point closest to our planet, which makes it larger and more complete.

“It is a very subtle effect that you will not always be able to notice unless you look at the moon regularly,” said Petro. “And so I encourage people to go out and look at the moon, not only on Monday or Tuesday, but later in the week, during a month, over several months, to notice changes in the moon.”

The October harvesting moon occurs two weeks after NASA announced its last class of astronauts who could one day venture on the moon and Mars. And at the beginning of next year, a crew of four veterans astronauts will fly on the Artemis II mission which will tour the moon.

“What makes the moon to come on October 6 is so special, this is what we learned (recently) – that Arthis II launches on the Moon at the beginning of next year,” said Petro, “and therefore we have an opportunity very soon, in order not only to have a moon that we look at, but also a moon that has visited humans.”

Here is when looking for the supermoons to come, according to the Almanac of farmers:

There are also opportunities to observe other celestial activities, including showers of imminent meteors that will decorate the night sky.

Here are the peak dates of meteor showers scheduled for 2025, according to the American Meteor Society and Earthsky.

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