Waning
Gibbous ♋ 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 15 days old Moon is in ♋ Cancer.
* The exact date and time of this Full Moon phase is on 28 December 2012 at 10:21 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
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 ∠8° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1778"
Lunar disc appears visually 9.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1778" and ∠1951".
It is Cold Moon
The Full Moon this days is the Cold of December 2012.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Last Quarter in Libra ♎ on 5 January 2013 at 03:58
- New Moon in Capricorn ♑ on 11 January 2013 at 19:44
- First Quarter in Aries ♈ on 18 January 2013 at 23:45
- Full Moon in Leo ♌ on 27 January 2013 at 04:38
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 160 / 1113
The Moon is 15 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the middle part of current synodic month. This is lunation 160 of Meeus index or 1113 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.46 days
The length of the lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 2 minutes. It is 34 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 shorter than mean
The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 42 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 27 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠6.8°
At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠6.8°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠23.3°.
Moon after apogee
2 days after point of apogee on 25 December 2012 at 21:19 in ♊ Gemini. The lunar orbit is getting narrow, while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days, until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 January 2013 at 10:26 in ♑ Capricorn.
Distance to Moon 403 163 km
The Moon is 403 163 km (250 514 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 12 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 360 048 km (223 723 mi).
Moon after descending node
3 days after descending node on 24 December 2012 at 22:27 in ♉ Taurus. The Moon is located south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days, until the lunar orbit crosses from South to North in ascending node on 7 January 2013 at 23:50 in ♏ Scorpio.
Draconic month
16 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♏ Scorpio, the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the cycle.
Moon after northern standstill
1 day since the previous standstill on 26 December 2012 at 21:24 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.927°, the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.879° at the point of next southern standstill on 9 January 2013 at 15:22 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.
