Harvest Moon This Week

The U.S. will have a Supermoon & partial eclipse at the same time on Tuesday night.Photo byphoto by: Sean Qiu / Instagram @flyhighdragon via sfgate.com

On Tuesday, September 15, September will have a Supermoon known as the Harvest Moon. It will also be a part of a partial lunar eclipse and to go along with that it's a supermoon. Astronomy experts say it's known as a Corn Moon or a Fruit Moon. What does all this mean.

A Harvest moon is a full moon that is closest to the autumnal equinox. This means that the moon will appear much larger and brighter in the night sky. It's called a Harvest Moon because before electricity, the farmers would take advantage of it by continuing their harvest work by the light of the moonlight. At the beginning of fall, the farmers were at their busiest with the most work to do so the light of the moon played a big role in their night work.

A lunar eclipse is when the earth is in between the sun and the moon so it creates a shadow. With a partial moon eclipse the top 8% will be in earth's shadow. NASA has stated that the eclipses peak will occur at 10:44 p.m.

The partial lunar eclipse will occur at approximately 8:41 p.m. EST on Tuesday night. Of course that's as long as the weather is clear.