Is it possible to have a harvest moon in june?

Question

ok im curios about this, on june 1st between 6 30 and 8 00 in the evening i took a few pictures of the rising full moon and what struck me as odd about the moon was that it was shining red at first and then diminished to orange but during this change the intensity of light increased such that it started looking a bit like the sun, although not nearly as bight , but bright enough to be confused as the sun. is it posiible for a harvest moon to appear in the start of june in the northern hemisphere?

Answer 1

The Harvest Moon is the full moon nearest to the autumnal equinox, which occurs (in the northern hemisphere) on or about 23 September, and in the southern hemisphere on or about 21 March. Since June is more than one month away from either of those dates, it would be impossible. By the way, there is nothing special about the appearance of the harvest moon. It isn't unusually big or bright or orange. It is just the full Moon nearest the dates mentioned above.

Answer 2

To add to campbelp's usual correct response, the Harvest Moon occurs at a time when the moon is approaching its most northern point on the ecliptic. Because of this dynamic combined with the tilt of the ecliptic, the moon rises at nearly the same time for a few nights in a row. (Usually, the moon rises about 50 minutes later each night...during the Harvest Moon, this reduces to about 30 minutes later each night.)

The real world effect of this is that for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, there is bright moonlight all night long, which allows farmers to work at night while harvesting the fall crops. That's why it's called the "Harvest Moon."