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 24 February 2005 at 04:54 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 ∠9° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

It is Snow Moon

The Full Moon these days is the Snow of February 2005.

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 ∠1799"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1799" and ∠1938".

Lunation 63 / 1016

The Moon is 15 days old and navigating through the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 63 of Meeus index or 1016 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 42 minutes and it is 40 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 2 hours and 2 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 7 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠17.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠17.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠36.2°.

Moon after apogee

4 days since point of apogee on 20 February 2005 at 04:59 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 8 March 2005 at 03:42 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 398 532 km

The Moon is 398 532 km (247 636 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 235 km (225 704 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 13 February 2005 at 10:25 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 28 February 2005 at 00:10 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 19 February 2005 at 01:13 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.152° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.257° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 March 2005 at 04:40 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries 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