Come a little bit closer...

Last night was the Harvest Moon, which would have been a time of great significance to our predecessors but for many people now only registers as the title of that accoustic album Neil Young did in the 90's that wasn't as good as Harvest.

The Harvest Moon (as above. Not my picture!) is the name given to the nearest full moon to the Autumn Equinox, which is where the sun rises due east and sets due west in the Northern Hemisphere. Both these events occured on the same day yesterday, for the first time since 1991. It can be one of the great sights for night sky-watchers, as the moon often appears closer than normal to the earth and can have a reddish hue in early evening, due to the lower than usual angle it rises at in the evening sky. Once the cloud cleared away later last night the moon was dazzlingly bright, especially in Bruichladdich where Loch Indaal reflected much of the light on. Farmers would have used these extra hours of light to continue bringing in the harvest. I shudder to think what our local farmers use the extra light for now!

It will be interesting to see if any geese took advantage of the good Northerly wind and the bright light...