Tonight in your neighborhood: Harvest Moon

The Harvest Moon
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes
  And roofs of villages, on woodland crests
  And their aerial neighborhoods of nests
  Deserted, on the curtained window-panes
Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes
  And harvest-fields, its mystic splendor rests!
  Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,
  With the last sheaves return the laboring wains!
All things are symbols: the external shows
  Of Nature have their image in the mind,
  As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves;
The song-birds leave us at the summer's close,
  Only the empty nests are left behind,
  And pipings of the quail among the sheaves.

Who would not love to hear the pipings of the quail under a full Harvest Moon?

I'm excited about the Harvest Moon – I want to see it. It was hidden behind the clouds last night, and today is also cloudy, but I'm holding out hope.

This moon comes with many pleasant associations – the divine Laurel and Hardy singing and dancing to "Shine on Harvest Moon" is one of them.



This Neil Young song is another.



For a slightly more scientific view, don't miss the Farmer's Almanac, which has a September moon guide packed with information and videos.

"We all shine on. Like the moon and the stars and the sun."
~ John Lennon