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AP
The full moon rises behind the Statue of Liberty at sunset in New York City. (AP Photo/ J. David Ake)
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A brilliant orange Full Hunter’s Moon casting its spectacular glow across the October sky is an icon of the Halloween season, and this weekend is your chance to see the phenomenon for real.
The Hunter’s Moon is the name given to October’s full moon, which is also the first full moon after the Harvest Moon—the one closest to the autumn equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.
Thanks to the “moon illusion," the Full Hunter’s Moon appears huge and bright while it hangs low in the sky close to the horizon, and thanks to its hourly proximity to sunset, it should reflect the sun’s orange color around that time.
This year, the moon will reach peak fullness on Sunday, October 13 at 5:07 p.m., EDT, but it won’t rise above the horizon until twilight settles in, after 6:30 p.m.
If the skies are clear, sky-gazers should be in for a big orange treat, and to that end, here’s a look at the cloud cover forecast around that time in Upstate NY. Temperatures are expected to be in the 40s across Upstate NY on Sunday night, so if you’re going out, bring a coat.
- In Buffalo, partly cloudy skies with a 20% chance of precipitation
- In Rochester, mainly clear skies with a 10% chance of precipitation
- In Syracuse, mostly clear skies with a few clouds
- In Albany, mostly clear skies with a 10% chance of precipitation
- In the mid-Hudson Valley, partly cloudy skies with a 20% chance of precipitation
So why the name Hunter’s Moon? According to Time and Date, Anglo-Saxons named it to reference the time of year when hunted game is fattened. It was a sign that the time had come to hunt, slaughter and preserve meats for the coming winter months.
It is sometimes also called the “blood moon," for similar reasons, but this shouldn’t be confused with the name also used to refer to lunar eclipses.
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