On the night of Tuesday 17 to Wednesday 18 September, from the United States to Norway via the United Kingdom, a “Super Harvest Moon” could be observed in the sky.
A superb spectacle. Throughout the northern hemisphere, thousands of lucky people were able to observe a “Super Harvest Moon” on the night of Tuesday 17 to Wednesday 18 September. By coincidence, this astronomical phenomenon was combined with a partial lunar eclipse: for a few hours our natural satellite was plunged into the shadow of the Earth.
The term “Super Moon” is used when a full moon coincides with the moment when our natural satellite, which follows the trajectory of an ellipse, is at the point of its orbit closest to Earth. That night, our satellite was located about 355,000 kilometers from the planet.
As for the “harvests”, the name was given to it by the Amerindian tribes, because it is the last full moon before autumn, the time of year when the harvests are most abundant.
Visible in the northern hemisphere
Early in the night, the “Super Harvest Moon” was observed in several European countries by photographers from Agence France Presse.
The partial lunar eclipse was observed in the middle of the night, mainly in North America, such as Dallas and Arlington, Texas, but also in France.
But the spectacle was also observed in Norway, in Stavanger, according to images provided by the Associated Press agency to its clients around the world.
The peak of the eclipse was observed at 4:44 a.m. Paris time. It was a partial eclipse of low amplitude: only the upper part of the moon was in the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow.
