Full Moon
Full MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

Full Moon in Aries

Full Moon on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 100%. Lunar cycle is 15 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Full Moon phase is on 12 October 2011 at 02:06 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. It is visible all night and it is high in the sky around midnight.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

It is Hunter Moon

The Full Moon these days is the Hunter of October 2011.

Super spring tide

There is extremely high Full Moon ocean tide on this date. Combined Sun and Moon gravitational tidal force working on Earth is heavy, because of the Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy alignment and the near perigee.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1923".

Lunation 145 / 1098

The Moon is 15 days old and navigating through the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 145 of Meeus index or 1098 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 47 minutes and it is 1 hour and 27 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 57 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 12 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠350.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠350.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠5.3°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 11:43 about 14 days since last perigee on 28 September 2011 at 01:01 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 14 days until point of next perigee on 26 October 2011 at 12:26 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 406 435 km

This apogee Moon is 406 435 km (252 547 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 027 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 274 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 2 October 2011 at 09:09 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 16 October 2011 at 21:01 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 2 October 2011 at 11:38 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-22.791° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠22.665° at the point of next northern standstill on 17 October 2011 at 02:06 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy

The Moon is in a Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and thus forming Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy alignment.

Lunar calendar

Sources and credits

Parts of this Lunar Calendar are based on Planetary Ephemeris Data Courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.Astropixels.com

Moon phase image credit to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov