Behold The Harvest Moon

Step outside and be bathed by the light of the harvest moon. And harvest some crops or something to get the full effect.

What is a Harvest Moon? NASA knows.

The Harvest Moon is no ordinary full moon; it behaves in a special way. Throughout the year the Moon rises, on average, about 50 minutes later each day. But near the autumnal equinox, which comes this year on Sept. 22nd, the day-to-day difference in the local time of moonrise is only 30 minutes. The Moon will rise around sunset tonight--and not long after sunset for the next few evenings.

That comes in handy for northern farmers who are working long days to harvest their crops before autumn. The extra dose of lighting afforded by the full Moon closest to the equinox is what gives the Harvest Moon its name. In the southern hemisphere, this week's full Moon behaves in exactly the opposite way: there will be an extra long time between moonrises from one evening to the next.

And speaking of the moon, look at this.

WASHINGTON – NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday on its plan to spend $100 billion and the next 12 years building the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the Moon by 2018.

A trip to the moon for only half of what it costs to either rebuild Iraq or New Orleans. And there are no hurricanes on the moon. Nor are there any WMD (but there weren't any in Iraq either so never mind).

Read the whole article, it even has an artist's conception of the new moonship.