A rare 'micro' harvest moon will grace the night sky, on September 13, which will be an auspicious day for skywatchers. It should be mentioned that this is after many years that a full moon is happening on a Friday, which marks 13th in the calendar, and many people believe that this date is associated with bad luck.
As per a report in Farmer's Almanac, people living in the Pacific, Central and Mountain time zones will be able to see the 'micro' full moon before the midnight of Friday. However, people who live in the Eastern time zone will have to wait a little more, and they will witness the sky sighting at around 12.30 AM, and as a result, for them, the micromoon will appear only on September 14.
It was on October 13, 2000, that a nation-wide Friday full moon happened, and the same event will happen next time only on August 13, 2049.
It should be noted that this full moon is also known as the harvest moon. It got the name harvest moon as it is nearest to September 23, the autumnal equinox.
As per Buddhist tradition, this full moon is known as Modhu Purnima, the Honey Full Moon Festival.
"For some Buddhists in Bangladesh and Thailand, this full Moon is Modhu Purnima, the Honey Full Moon Festival, or the Honey-offering Festival, tied to a legend that an elephant and a monkey fed the Buddha when he was in the forest to bring peace between two factions, with the elephant offering fruit and the monkey offering a honeycomb," says NASA.
A micromoon is basically the opposite of a supermoon. During a micromoon, earth's natural satellite will appear 14 percent smaller. The smaller size of the moon is because it is nearing its apogee, the point in its nearly month-long elliptical orbit where it stays very far away from the earth. However, during a supermoon, the moon will be very close to the earth, and as a result, it will appear more big and brighter.
