Rare full moon will light up Friday That the 13th for the first time in years

nasafullmoon

A complete moon rises at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 2017.


NASA/Kim Shiflett

Friday that the 13th is here, and it is extra spooky. The date related to bad luck, haunted homes and that 1980s summer-camp slasher film series will find a complete moon for the very first time lately.

According to the Farmers’ Almanac, people residing in the Pacific, Central and Mountain time zones will be able to gaze on the entire moon before midnight on Friday, Sept. 13, but those living in the Eastern time zone will have to fudge a little. Their full moon will happen just after midnight, at 12:33 a.m., pushing it to the much-less-spooky date of Saturday, Sept. 14.

If you miss seeing it Friday night into Saturday, you’ll get another chance. NASA says the moon will appear full again Saturday night into Sunday morning.


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East Coasters last saw a Friday the 13th full moon on June 13, 2014, the Farmers’ Almanac reports. A nationwide Friday the 13th full moon hasn’t happened since Oct. 13, 2000, and won’t happen again until Aug. 13, 2049.

A full moon at September is also called a harvest moon, meaning it’s the full moon nearest to Sept. 23, the autumnal equinox. But unlike that stunningly bright supermoon that starred in so many great photos back in February, this one is going to appear 14 percent smaller than that, leading some to call it a micro moon. That’s because it’s nearly at apogee, that the Almanac reports. Apogee is that the point in the moon’s orbit where it’s at its greatest distance from Earth, 252,100 miles away.

According to NASA, other names for that this moon include that the fruit moon, that the barley moon, the corn moon, the mid-autumn festival moon, the Chuseok Moon, the Modhu Purnima also that the BinaraPura Pasalosvaka Poya.

Originally printed Sept. 10.