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
The length of the 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 the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increasing with the 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 25 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 38 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠135.6°
At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠135.6°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠164.3°.
Moon before apogee
10 days after point of apogee on 20 December 2009 at 14:54 in ♒ Aquarius. 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 1 January 2010 at 20:36 in ♋ Cancer.
Distance to Moon 366 614 km
The Moon is 366 614 km (227 803 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 684 km (222 876 mi).
Moon before descending node
12 days after ascending node on 18 December 2009 at 16:41 in ♑ Capricorn. The Moon is located north of the ecliptic over the following day, until the lunar orbit crosses from North to South in descending node on 1 January 2010 at 12:30 in ♋ Cancer.
Draconic month
12 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the cycle.
Moon after northern standstill
1 day since the previous standstill on 30 December 2009 at 10:09 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.787°, the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-25.796° at the point of next southern standstill on 12 January 2010 at 08:33 in ♐ Sagittarius.
Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy
The Moon is in a Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and thus forming Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy alignment.
