It’s going to be a marvellous night for a moondance
THE nights grow colder and the moon burns bright. Last weekend a hunter’s moon – also known as a “blood moon” for its terracotta glow – lit up the skies around Britain.
In Skipton, in the Yorkshire Dales, the rarefied light cast a lunar rainbow over the moors in the manner of an Atkinson Grimshaw painting. Fitting, given that the great Victorian hailed from nearby.
The hunter’s moon is the opening ceremony for three so-called “super moons” over the next three months. A super moon occurs when a full moon is at the point in its orbit that brings it closest to Earth, making it appear 30 per cent brighter and 14 per cent bigger to the naked eye. The next full moon on Nov 14 will be the largest and brightest of the 21st century so far.
When the moon shines so close above our heads, humans react in strange ways. In some hospitals and psychiatric wards it is still an accepted school of thought that full moons lead to busy nights. It is why, after all, we call it lunacy.
“She comes more near the Earth than she was wont,” says Shakespeare’s Othello after he murders Desdemona, “and makes men mad.” The theory goes that because our bodies consist of 70 per cent water, the full moon riles our innards up with the same gravitational pull that moves the tides.
In 2007, Sussex Police employed extra officers during full moons to patrol Brighton. The force had conducted research that concluded there was a notable rise in violent incidents during full moons – and payday. A few years previously, a threemonth psychological study of 1,200 inmates at Leeds Prison discovered a rise in violent incidents during the days either side of a full moon.
Not that this, of course, should stop anybody venturing out into the clear crisp night. Just know you will not be the only one howling at the moon.