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

Full Moon in Virgo

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 16 February 2003 at 23:51 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

It is Snow Moon

The Full Moon these days is the Snow of February 2003.

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 ∠1928"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1928" and ∠1942".

Lunation 38 / 991

The Moon is 15 days old and navigating through the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 38 of Meeus index or 991 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.66 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 47 minutes and it is 57 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 3 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠90.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠90.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠127.8°.

Moon before perigee

9 days since point of apogee on 7 February 2003 at 21:58 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 19 February 2003 at 16:19 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 371 772 km

The Moon is 371 772 km (231 008 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 364 844 km (226 704 mi).

Moon before descending node

6 days after ascending node on 10 February 2003 at 17:39 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 23 February 2003 at 15:47 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 13 February 2003 at 10:59 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.923° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.015° at the point of next southern standstill on 26 February 2003 at 05:53 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

6 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus 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