Harvest Moon seems to be bigger, brighter, or more colorful than other full moons because the reddish component of the light is what we see. This was a Supermoon, when ‘Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth.’ The photographer called this, “Moonrise of the 2012 Supermoon taken from the Toroweap viewpoint at the Grand Canyon's North Rim.” Photo #1 by Jason Hines

Waves of Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium silhouetted in front of full moon rising. EarthSky explained, “The actual size of the Harvest Moon depends on the year. The Harvest Moon has the reputation of being especially big and bright and orange. But it isn’t really the Harvest Moon’s size or brightness that distinguishes it from other full moons. In fact, the 2012 Harvest Moon is a touch smaller than an average-sized full moon.” However, “after sunset around any full moon, the moon will always be near the horizon. It’ll just have risen. It’s the location of the moon near the horizon that causes the Harvest Moon – or any full moon – to look big and orange in color.” Photo #2 by Chris Smith

The full moon rising near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. It was called a super perigee moon since it was at its closest to Earth. Photo #3 by Beverly

Moonrise Behind the Waves. The photographer noted, “The moon rising at the ocean front. The color was so reddish it almost looked like an eclipsed moon but brighter! From Miramar, Argentina.” Photo #4 by Luis Argerich

Wolf Moonrise. “The full moon from January the 9th rising above Rio de La Plata as seen from Buenos Aires, Argentina,” wrote the photographer. “The red color and the distorted look is produced by Earth’s atmosphere as the moon was very low in the East. Taken with a 1500mm lens and stitched from 5 shots (91mpx).” Photo #5 by Luis Argerich

The super moon rising above the bridge, Japan. That moon appears so blood red as to make one check around for other end of the world signs. 😉 Photo #6 by halfrain

Seattle Super Moon. “The term supermoon is not used within the astronomical community, which use the term perigee-syzygy or perigee moon,” spake Wikipedia. “On average, about once a year the moon becomes full within a few hours of perigee.” Photo #7 by Dave Morrow

Supermoon moonrise in Schwelm, Enneptal [Germany]. According to NASA, a full moon at perigee is up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than one at its furthest point (apogee). Photo #8 by Julian Schüngel

Super Moonrise Over Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco. Photo #9 by David Yu

The full moon and a night view of Puerto Madero. Photo #10 by Luis Argerich

Rocky Mountain National Park – moonscape. Longs Peak as seen from suburban Denver. Photo #11 by b k (Joisey Showa Fotos)

Composite of Harvest Moon. It has a powerful mystique and looks both potentially ominous and hypnotizing. Harvest moon is actually the name for the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox. EarthSky wrote, “In the Northern Hemisphere, you’ll always see the Harvest Moon in either September or October. In the Southern Hemisphere, a moon with these same characteristics always comes in March or April.” There’s even a name for the next full moon after the Harvest Moon; it’s called the Hunter’s Moon. Photo #12 by Bruce Denis

Supermoon Sailboat, St Petersburg, Florida. Does light of the moon call out to you to cut loose and go crazy in real life? Wikipedia said that crazy by way of the moonlight idea is folklore, but plenty of people who work at emergency rooms, hospitals, or take emergency calls still insist that a full moon makes folks nuts. “Full moons are traditionally associated with temporal insomnia, insanity (hence the terms lunacy and lunatic) and various “magical phenomena” such as lycanthropy (werewolves). Psychologists, however, have found that there is no strong evidence for effects on human behavior around the time of a full moon”. Photo #13 by Matthew Paulson

Harvest Moon over Spring Mountains in Henderson, Nevada. Photo #14 by James Marvin Phelps

Stormy Sunset Moon-bow. Photo #15 by Stuart Williams

Romanian seaside Supermoon. Oh my, this scene looks like something straight out of a science fiction movie. Photo #16 by Gabriel

A full moon captured July 18, 2008. According to NASA, “The technical term is perigee-syzygy. A popularized term is ‘super moon.’ A full moon at its closest point to Earth definitely will be big and bright. But it won’t look much, if any, different than a ‘normal’ full moon and will not have any readily observable effect on our planet except perhaps slightly higher tides. The phenomena occur four to six times a year.” Photo #17 by NASA / Sean Smith

The photographer wrote, “Yep, yet another where I had to stop at the side of the road and make the most of it, after the Aurora failed to show at the locations I had been scouting.” Photo #18 by Carl Jones

Harvest Moon ducks at EB Rains Park in Northglenn, Colorado. Photo #19 by b k (Joisey Showa Fotos)

Red Moon over Sodepur, Kolkata. Photo #20 by Kuntal Gupta

“Deep in the heart of the Atacama Desert, home of the Paranal Observatory, the Sun is setting at the start of another clear night. This charming photograph, taken by ESO Photo Ambassador Gianluca Lombardi shows one of four Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) that belong to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) sitting boldly against a vivid sky of pink and blue. The full Moon, seen hovering over the horizon, has a distinctly reddish hue, a phenomenon caused by the scattering of light by Earth’s atmosphere. When the Moon is close to the horizon, the light we see from it must travel through a greater thickness of the atmosphere, so the effects of scattering are increased. As red light is more resilient to scattering than green or blue, our view of the Moon is reddened. As it happens, the reddening effect is somewhat less pronounced at sites like Paranal, as the clear air contains fewer particles that cause scattering. In addition to this, Paranal’s isolated location, far from civilisation and hence sources of light pollution, makes it a perfect place for ground-based astronomy. Photo #21 by ESO/G. Lombardi

Not a red moon or supermoon, this is a Blue Moon Over Cincinnati, Ohio. NASA explained, “A rare second Full Moon of the month, known as a ‘Blue Moon,’ is seen over Cincinnati on Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. The family of Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong held a memorial service celebrating his life earlier in the day in Cincinnati. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, died Saturday, Aug. 25. He was 82.” Photo #22 by NASA / Bill Ingalls

A United States Marine Corps helicopter is seen flying through this scene of the full moon and the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012, from Arlington National Cemetery. Photo #23 by NASA / Bill Ingalls

Red Moon, Lunar Eclipse Progression. Photo #24 by Bernard Kane Abesamis

“A red moon over Lyon, in France.” Photo #25 by Romain Guy

Lunar eclipse with a star. Photo #26 by Ro Irving

Jet Across the Supermoon. “Super perigee moon, with silhouetted plane on approach to SeaTac airport.” Photo #27 by Ingrid Taylar

Just Rising. Photo #28 by Susan (Pandora’s Perspective)

“The Rising Moon.” Photo #29 by Angus MacRae

“Portland Super Moon.” The photographer noted, “Using the moon I captured on same night.” Photo #30 by George

Palace and moon. Royal Palace of Gödöllő, Budapest, Hungary. Photo #31 by Adam Tomkó

Supermoon near courthouse in Wichita. Photo #32 by Jake Stewart

Supermoon over San Francisco. Photo #33 by Jason Rodman

“Red tide at night: ‘Bioluminescent tide’ at La Jolla Cove under the moon.” Photo #34 by slworking2

Harvest Moon. The full moon rises over a mature field of corn in Money Creek Township; McLean County, Illinois. Photo #35 by

Harvest Moon over Stone Mountain and Skyram Support. Photo #36 by Tony Seneadza

Wipeout under the harvest moon? It’s all about perspectives. Photo #37 by Susan (Pandora’s Perspective)

Earth, Moon, Hubble. Space Shuttle Discovery’s crew witnessed this bright full moon from orbit during a December 1999 mission that included servicing the Hubble Space Telescope (the top of which is seen on the right). To the left is Earth’s horizon; the full moon on that day, Dec. 22, was brighter than average because it was full at nearly the same time it was at its closest to the Earth at a time when the Earth was relatively close to the sun. Photo #38 by NASA

Earth and Moon from Galileo probe, 1990. “During its flight, the Galileo spacecraft returned images of the Earth and Moon. Separate images of the Earth and Moon were combined to generate this view. The Galileo spacecraft took the images in 1992 on its way to explore the Jupiter system in 1995-97. The image shows a partial view of the Earth centered on the Pacific Ocean about latitude 20 degrees south. The west coast of South America can be observed as well as the Caribbean; swirling white cloud patterns indicate storms in the southeast Pacific. The distinct bright ray crater at the bottom of the Moon is the Tycho impact basin. The lunar dark areas are lava rock filled impact basins. This picture contains same scale and relative color/albedo images of the Earth and Moon. False colors via use of the 1-micron filter as red, 727-nm filter as green, and violet filter as blue. The Galileo project is managed for NASA’s Office of Space Science by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.” Photo #39 by NASA, JPL

Sun and Moon. On Oct. 7, 2010, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, observed its first lunar transit when the new moon passed directly between the spacecraft (in its geosynchronous orbit) and the sun. With SDO watching the sun in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, the dark moon created a partial eclipse of the sun. Photo #40 by NASA