There's a harvest moon the 27th and 28th of this month, and the Twin City Amateur Astronomers are hosting an event Saturday night at Sugar Grove Nature Center for sky gazers focusing on what should be a pretty spectacular appearance by our closest neighbor. WGLT's Jim Browne talks with former ISU planetarium director Carl Wenning, with the Amateur Astronomers. He says the harvest moon is also known as a "supermoon" this time of year. He says early farmers coined the term harvest moon to describe autumn moons that tended to rise only a half hour apart on successive nights. Wenning explains this is because of the way the moon moves among the stars of the ecliptic.
The total eclipse occurs at 9:47 the evening of the 27th, and the moon begins to reemerge just before 10:30. Wenning says this 'Super Moon' will be the closest of three this calendar year, just 222,000 miles from earth. The moon drifts by about 30,000 miles in relation to it's distance from the earth. The star-gazing session at the Sugar Grove Nature Center near Funks Grove is from 7:30 to 9:30 this Saturday night.