The full Harvest Moon will rise in the sky on Thursday. The moon will be completely full at 2:41 p.m. EDT Thursday, but depending on where you are it might be difficult to see. In certain places the moon will be below the horizon line for part of the day not to mention that it will be sunny out, making it even more difficult to see. The moon will still look full hours later during Thursday evening, and it will even look mostly full on Wednesday night as well, before reaching peak fullness.

Usually the Harvest Moon happens during September, but this year, it’s happening in October. The Harvest Moon is used to refer to the full moon that rises closest to the autumn equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s called the Harvest Moon because it tends to rise soon after sunset, which gave farmers more time to harvest their crops, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. It also happens around the time of year when many crops are ready for harvesting.

The Harvest Moon is just the name for the full moon, while it’s not necessarily any larger or brighter than usual, it is visible for longer periods of time. After the Harvest Moon rises on Thursday afternoon, it will stay up for nearly the entire night setting around the same time as sunrise. Each day the moon rises later and later, usually rising about 50 minutes later each day.

But around the Harvest Moon, it only rises about 30 to 35 minutes later each day, according to Earthsky.org. The higher north of latitude you’re at, the less time between the moonrises.

During this time the moon will be rising closer to when the sun is setting, so you’ll be able to see the moon during twilight. When you see the moon rising close to the horizon line early in the evening, you’ll see the moon through more of the Earth’s atmosphere, which might make it appear slightly more yellow or orange. The moon will appear fairly full during these nights before and after the full moon too. It will seem like there are actually a few nights to enjoy the full moon. As of Monday, prior to the full moon, the moon was nearly 90 percent full already, according to Time and Date.

The autumnal equinox happened on Sept. 22. The September full moon had occurred a few weeks prior to that event meaning that it was not the full moon happening closest to the equinox. This only happens about every three years or so.

The full moon in October is also sometimes called the Hunter’s Moon marking the time to go hunting before the winter arrives. The Travel Moon or the Dying Grass Moon are other names that have been used by various Native American tribes in reference to October’s full moon. These are usually used when the Harvest Moon happens in September.

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