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Special sight for supermoon hunters

News imageJason Way Photography The image shows a dramatic night-time Dartmoor landscape at Haytor featuring a large, rugged rock formation beneath a cloudy sky illuminated by a full moon. Two small human figures are visible on the rocks—one near the centre-left and another on the far right, who appears to be raising both arms. Some vegetation is present at the base of the rocks.Jason Way Photography
Walkers enjoy the supermoon as it rose above Haytor

Sky-watcher Jason Way captured this amazing shot of a supermoon above Dartmoor's Haytor Rocks on Tuesday night, among many other images of the phenonomen taken in Cornwall.

A supermoon appears brighter and larger than other full moons in the evening sky and occurs when the moon is at its closest point to the Earth.

The term was first coined in 1979 by astrologer Richard Nolle and this occurrence was the first since November 2024.

This supermoon is known by different names - both as the Hunter's Moon and as the Harvest Moon.

News imageTanktop/BBC Weather Watchers The image shows a close-up of the full moon with a striking orange hue.Tanktop/BBC Weather Watchers
News imageJane Lewarne/BBC Weather Watchers This image shows a full moon set against a dark night sky. The moon is captured in high detail, revealing surface features like craters and lunar maria (the darker plains). Its round shape and brightness stand out sharply against the surrounding darkness.Jane Lewarne/BBC Weather Watchers
A close-up of the full moon with a striking orange hue in Truro
The moon's round shape and brightness stand out sharply against the surrounding darkness at St Erme

It is referred to as the Hunter's Moon because as the first full moon in October, it was a time when historically preparations were made for winter in the northern hemisphere, with people hunting and preserving meats.

It is also referred to the Harvest Moon, as it rises closest to the autumn equinox (22 September), and reflects a time when farmers would use the moon's brightness to collect crops in the evening.

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