281. If the Earth had no annual motion, the Sun would never appear to shift his place in the Ecliptic. And then every New Moon would fall in the same Sign and degree of the Ecliptic, and every Full Moon in the opposite: for the Moon would go precisely round the Ecliptic from Change to Change. So that if the Moon was once Full in Pisces, or Aries, she would always be Full when she came round to the same Sign and Degree again. And as the Full Moon rises at Sun-set (because when any point of the Ecliptic sets the opposite point rises) she would constantly rise within two hours of Sun-set during the week in which she were Full. But in the time that the Moon goes round the Ecliptic from any conjunction or opposition, the Earth goes almost a Sign forward; and therefore the Sun will seem to go as far forward in that time, namely 271⁄2 degrees: so that the Moon must go 271⁄2 degrees more than round; and as much farther as the Sun advances in that interval, which is 21⁄15 degrees, before she can be in conjunction with, or opposite to the Sun again. Hence it is evident, that there can be but one conjunction or opposition of the Sun and Moon in a year in any particular part of the Ecliptic. This may be familiarly exemplified by the hour and minute hands of a watch, which are never in conjunction or opposition in that part of the dial-plate where they were so last before. And indeed if we compare the twelve hours on the dial-plate to the twelve Signs of the Ecliptic, the hour-hand to the Sun and the minute-hand to the Moon, we shall have a tolerably near resemblance in miniature to the motions of our great celestial Luminaries. The only difference is, that whilst the Sun goes once round the Ecliptic the Moon makes 121⁄3 conjunctions with him: but whilst the hour-hand goes round the dial-plate the minute-hand makes only 11 conjunctions with it; because the minute hand moves slower in respect of the hour-hand than the Moon does with regard to the Sun.
The Harvest and Hunter’s Moon.
282. As the Moon can never be full but when she is opposite to the Sun, and the Sun is never in Virgo and Libra but in our autumnal months, ’tis plain that the Moon is never full in the opposite Signs, Pisces and Aries, but in these two months. And therefore we can have only two Full Moons in the year, which rise so near the time of Sun-set for a week together as above-mentioned. The former of these is called the Harvest Moon, and the latter the Hunter’s Moon.
Why the Moon’s regular rising is never perceived but in Harvest.
283. Here it will probably be asked, why we never observe this remarkable rising of the Moon but in harvest, since she is in Pisces and Aries at least twelve times in the year besides; and must then rise with as little difference of time as in harvest? The answer is plain: for in winter these Signs rise at noon; and being then only a Quarter of a Circle distant from the Sun, the Moon in them is in her first Quarter: but when the Sun is above the Horizon the Moon’s rising is neither regarded nor perceived. In spring these Signs rise with the Sun because he is then in them; and as the Moon changeth in them at that time of the year, she is quite invisible. In summer they rise about mid-night, and the Sun being then three Signs, or a Quarter of a Circle before them, the Moon is in them about her third Quarter; when rising so late, and giving but very little light, her rising passes unobserved. And in autumn, these Signs being opposite to the Sun, rise when he sets, with the Moon in opposition, or at the Full, which makes her rising very conspicuous.
284. At the Equator, the North and South Poles lie in the Horizon; and therefore the Ecliptic makes the same Angle southward with the Horizon when Aries rises as it does northward when Libra rises. Consequently, as the Moon at all the fore-mentioned patches rises and sets nearly at equal Angles with the Horizon all the year round; and about 48 minutes later every day or night than on the preceding, there can be no particular Harvest Moon at the Equator.
285. The farther that any place is from the Equator, if it be not beyond the Polar Circle, the Angle gradually diminishes which the Ecliptic and Horizon make when Pisces and Aries rise; and therefore when the Moon is in these Signs she rises with a nearly proportionable difference later every day than on the former; and is for that reason the more remarkable about the Full, until we come to the Polar Circles, or 66 degrees from the Equator; in which Latitude the Ecliptic and Horizon become coincident, every day for a moment, at the same sidereal hour (or 3 minutes 56 seconds sooner every day than the former) and the very next moment one half of the Ecliptic containing Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and Gemini rises, and the opposite half sets. Therefore, whilst the Moon is going from the beginning of Capricorn to the beginning of Cancer, which is almost 14 days, she rises at the same sidereal hour; and in autumn just at Sun-set, because all that half of the Ecliptic in which the Sun is at that time sets at the same sidereal hour, and the opposite half rises: that is, 3 minutes 56 seconds, of mean solar time, sooner every day than on the day before. So whilst the Moon is going from Capricorn to Cancer she rises earlier every day than on the preceding; contrary to what she does at all places between the polar Circles. But during the above fourteen days, the Moon is 24 sidereal hours later in setting; for the six Signs which rise all at once on the eastern side of the Horizon are 24 hours in setting on the western side of it: as any one may see by making chalk-marks at the beginning of Capricorn and of Cancer, and then, having elevated the Pole 661⁄2 degrees, turn the Globe slowly round it’s Axis, and observe the rising and setting of the Ecliptic. As the beginning of Aries is equally distant from the beginning of Cancer and of Capricorn, it is in the middle of that half of the Ecliptic which rises all at once. And when the Sun is at the beginning of Libra, he is in the middle of the other half. Therefore, when the Sun is in Libra and the Moon in Capricorn, the Moon is a Quarter of a Circle before the Sun; opposite to him, and consequently full in Aries, and a Quarter of a Circle behind him when in Cancer. But when Libra rises Aries sets, and all that half of the Ecliptic of which Aries is the middle. And therefore, at that time of the year the Moon rises at Sun-set from her first to her third Quarter.
The Harvest Moons regular on both sides of the Equator.
286. In northern Latitudes, the autumnal Full Moons are in Pisces and Aries; and the vernal Full Moons in Virgo and Libra: in southern Latitudes just the reverse because the seasons are contrary. But Virgo and Libra rise at as small Angles with the Horizon in southern Latitudes as Pisces and Aries do in the northern; and therefore the Harvest Moons are just as regular on one side of the Equator as on the other.
287. As these Signs which rise with the least Angles set with the greatest, the vernal Full Moons differ as much in their times of rising every night as the autumnal Full Moons differ in their times of setting; and set with as little difference as the autumnal Full Moons rise: the one being in all cases the reverse of the other.