On the Harvest Moon and the Hunter’s Moon. The nearest Moon to the autumnal equinox is called the Harvest Moon: it rises nearer to the same each succeeding night at this time of year than it does at any other: it has received its cognomen in autumn only, on account probably of its use to the farmers, when pressed for time with the ingathering of the harvest. The cause of this phenomenon is the Moon’s being in the signs and at the time of the full, in which she is during this and the succeeding month. The October Moon is called the Hunter’s Moon. It is well known that the signs and rise making the smallest, and and rise making the greatest angle with the horizon; and vice versa with respect to setting. Now the Moon, whose orbit is nearly parallel to the ecliptic, is the full in and in September and October, consequently, rising in those months, she makes the least angle with the horizon, and therefore rises nearer to the same time every evening.

Thomas Furly Forster, The Pocket Encyclopaedia of Natural Phenomena, published 1827