Reason for harvest moon phenomenon

Joerg Sczepek wrote:
So if I sum up what I unnderstood so far, in the northern latitudes
the moon seems to follow the ascending part of the ecliptic close to
the autunmal equinox (and thus takes a shallow path that minimizes the
time difference between successive risings), because of the relation
of the earth's position (inclination of it's axis) to the moons orbit.
For an observer in the southern hemisphere the same is true close to
the vernal equinox, because the relationship is almost exactly the
other way around due to the earth's movement. Right ?!

Sort of. Technically, the Full Moon in September is always ascending,
in the sense that its moving northward in the sky. However, since the
Moon's path is inclined northward in the southern hemisphere, the Full
Moon will rise earlier there if it's actually moving *southward* in the
sky. That happens to the greatest extent around March.

Brian Tung
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