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

Full Moon in Taurus

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 18 October 2013 at 23:38 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 is entering ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

It is Hunter Moon

The Full Moon these days is the Hunter of October 2013.

Spring tide

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

Apparent angular diameter ∠1839"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1839" and ∠1927".

Lunation 170 / 1123

The Moon is 15 days old and navigating through the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 170 of Meeus index or 1123 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.51 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 15 minutes and it is 43 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 29 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 40 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠285.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠285.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠315°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 10 October 2013 at 23:06 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 25 October 2013 at 14:25 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 389 842 km

The Moon is 389 842 km (242 237 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 561 km (251 383 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♉ Taurus at 21:47 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 3 November 2013 at 06:52 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 9 October 2013 at 23:52 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.537° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠19.509° at the point of next northern standstill on 23 October 2013 at 09:13 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last 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