Full
Moon ♋ Cancer
Moon phase for
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
Full Moon 100% illuminated
Full Moon is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 100%. The 14 days old Moon is in ♋ Cancer.
* The exact date and time of this Full Moon phase is on 31 December 2009 at 19:13 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Moon phase and lunation details
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.
Moon in ♋ Cancer
Moon is passing about ∠6° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1955"
Lunar disc appears visually 0.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1955" and ∠1951".
It is Cold Moon
The Full Moon this days is the Cold of December 2009.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Last Quarter in Libra ♎ on 7 January 2010 at 10:40
- New Moon in Capricorn ♑ on 15 January 2010 at 07:11
- First Quarter in Taurus ♉ on 23 January 2010 at 10:53
- Full Moon in Leo ♌ on 30 January 2010 at 06:18
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.
Lunation 123 / 1076
The Moon is 14 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the middle part of current synodic month. This is lunation 123 of Meeus index or 1076 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.8 days
Length of current 123 lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 9 minutes. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2009. It is 31 minutes shorter than next lunation 124 length.
Lunation length longer than mean
Length of current synodic month is 6 hours and 25 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 38 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠135.6°
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠135.6°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠164.3°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep increasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of apogee (∠180°).
Moon before perigee
10 days after point of apogee on 20 December 2009 at 14:54 in ♒ Aquarius. The lunar orbit is getting closer, while the Moon is moving inward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next day, until it get to the point of next perigee on 1 January 2010 at 20:36 in ♋ Cancer.
Distance to Moon 366 614 km
Moon is 366 614 km (227 803 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves closer next day until perigee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 358 684 km (222 876 mi).
Moon before descending node
12 days after its ascending node on 18 December 2009 at 16:41 in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon is following the northern part of its orbit for the next day, until it will cross the ecliptic from North to South in descending node on 1 January 2010 at 12:30 in ♋ Cancer.
Draconic month
12 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon is moving from the beginning to the first part of it.
Moon after northern standstill
1 day after previous North standstill on 30 December 2009 at 10:09 in ♊ Gemini, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠25.787°. Next 11 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-25.796° in the next southern standstill on 12 January 2010 at 08:33 in ♐ Sagittarius.
Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy
The Moon is in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun on this date and this alignment forms Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.