A bright full moon rose in 2017 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA / Kim Shifflet
Yet another very unusual phenomenon this is our way Very strange year. Jeffrey Hunt, an astronomy educator and former planetarium director, says the Halloween full moon of 2020 will be visible to the whole world for the first time since World War II, instead of its parts. And you can get a preview of the holiday event starting Thursday, Oct. 1, when the first full moon of the month – romantically known as the “harvest moon” – will appear.
This full moon will appear full for about three days, around 5pm on Oct. 1 and will last until Saturday, Oct. 3, NASA says. Pakni Moon is the name given to the full moon near the beginning of the fall. It usually happens in September, but this year, it is appearing in October-October. And the second full moon of that month, Halloween is just a preview of the full moon, known as the blue moon because it is the second full moon of the same month.
“When I was teaching my high school students thought the full moon would come on every Halloween,” Hunt told me. Not quite, however, the decor of the culture ensures that it looks like this. The last Halloween full moon to be seen around the world came in 1944, he said. He wrote about the incident on his web site, while Curves lined up. Halloween was a full moon for some places in 1955, but that doesn’t include western North America and the western Pacific, Hunt says.
While this year the Halloween full moon will appear in all parts of the world, that doesn’t mean every citizen will have a point of view. Residents from both North America and South America, India, Europe and most of Asia will also see it. But while Western Austral Australians will see it, people in the central and eastern parts of the country will not.
Know the time zone well? “Each time zone has those except the former (GMT) +8 time zone, if they have daylight time or (GMT) +9, there is no daylight time.” Says Hunt.
Want to see Halloween full moon? It’s so bright on the whole stage that it doesn’t matter if you’re in a crowded city or on a farm. And you don’t need expensive equipment.
“Walk out, and take a look,” Hunt says.
Don’t be surprised if you take a Halloween Moon shot with your phone and the photo doesn’t match what you saw.
“The results can be disappointing when the moon is photographed with a smartphone,” Hunt admits. “A telephoto connection will help make the moon wider. Make sure the adapter fits on your Mac and model. Don’t even over-estimate the moon. Adjust the camera’s brightness so that features are visible and it can’t work due to the moon’s brightness.”
If you’re too busy watching horror movies (or doing whatever the same coronavirus of trick-or-treating), you’ll have to wait until 2039 for another global full moon.
“Of course, in the intervening years the full moon occurs in October, not just on Halloween,” Hunt says. And before Halloween the full moon may appear in your field. It just won’t show up around the world.
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