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

Full Moon in Cancer

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 25 December 2053 at 09:23 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠6° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

It is Cold Moon

The Full Moon these days is the Cold of December 2053.

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 ∠1964"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1964" and ∠1951".

Lunation 667 / 1620

The Moon is 15 days old and navigating through the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 667 of Meeus index or 1620 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.79 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 53 minutes and it is 47 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2053. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 6 hours and 9 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 54 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠141.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠141.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠168.6°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 13 December 2053 at 21:20 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 26 December 2053 at 06:40 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 364 971 km

The Moon is 364 971 km (226 782 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 032 km (222 471 mi).

Moon before ascending node

8 days after descending node on 17 December 2053 at 00:48 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 29 December 2053 at 18:29 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon at northern standstill

At 11:21 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠18.770°. This is the year's northernmost lunar standstill of 2053. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-18.772° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 7 January 2054 at 19:44.

Draconic month

22 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final 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