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 ♊ Gemini.
* The exact date and time of this Full Moon phase is on 22 December 2018 at 17:49 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
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 ♊ Gemini
Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♋ Cancer later.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1939"
Lunar disc appears visually 0.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1939" and ∠1951".
It is Cold Moon
The Full Moon this days is the Cold of December 2018.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Last Quarter in Libra ♎ on 29 December 2018 at 09:34
- New Moon in Capricorn ♑ on 6 January 2019 at 01:28
- First Quarter in Aries ♈ on 14 January 2019 at 06:45
- Full Moon in Leo ♌ on 21 January 2019 at 05:16
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 234 / 1187
The Moon is 14 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the middle part of current synodic month. This is lunation 234 of Meeus index or 1187 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.76 days
Length of current 234 lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 8 minutes. It is 1 hour and 27 minutes shorter than next lunation 235 length.
Lunation length longer than mean
Length of current synodic month is 5 hours and 24 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 1 hour and 39 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠116.6°
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠116.6°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠149.4°. 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
9 days after point of apogee on 12 December 2018 at 12:25 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 24 December 2018 at 09:52 in ♋ Cancer.
Distance to Moon 369 655 km
Moon is 369 655 km (229 693 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves closer next day until perigee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 361 060 km (224 352 mi).
Moon before ascending node
11 days after its descending node on 10 December 2018 at 17:57 in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon is following the southern part of its orbit for the next day, until it will cross the ecliptic from South to North in ascending node on 24 December 2018 at 11:54 in ♋ Cancer.
Draconic month
25 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♋ Cancer, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
Moon before northern standstill
13 days after previous South standstill on 9 December 2018 at 11:12 in ♑ Capricorn, when Moon has reached southern declination of ∠-21.539°. Next day the lunar orbit moves northward to face North declination of ∠21.550° in the next northern standstill on 23 December 2018 at 11:48 in ♋ Cancer.
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.