Incredibly Rare Event Happening in Skies Above Halton

Published September 13, 2019 at 5:10 pm

A very rare harvest moon will rise over the skies of Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills just after midnight Saturday (Sept. 14).

A very rare harvest moon will rise over the skies of Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills just after midnight Saturday (Sept. 14).

The Moon will be at its fullest early Saturday morning, appearing “opposite” the Sun (in Earth-based longitude) at 12:33 a.m. EDT, NASA says.

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, the day of the arrival of this year’s Harvest Moon will depend on which time zone you live in.

If you live in the Eastern Time Zone, the moment the Moon turns full will occur just after midnight, but in the Central, Mountain, or Pacific time zones the Moon turns full comes before midnight on Friday.

In Canada, we haven’t had a Friday the 13th full moon since October 13th, 2000, and it won’t happen again until August 13, 2049.

As the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox (the end of summer and start of fall — Sept. 23), this is the Harvest Moon, NASA says. During the harvest season farmers sometimes need to work late into the night by the light of the moon, hence the name.

Forecasts predict a lot of cloud cover over much of southern Ontario through the evening but there is some hope that clouds will dissipate towards midnight — just in time to see the moon at its most full.

Who knows? Maybe this Friday the 13th will prove lucky and we’ll be able to catch a glimpse of this incredibly rare lunar event.

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