Waning
Gibbous ♋ Cancer
Moon phase for
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
Full Moon 99% illuminated
Full Moon is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 99%. The 15 days old Moon is in ♋ Cancer.
* 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
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
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 ∠12° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1956"
Lunar disc appears visually 0.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1956" 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 15 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
The length of the lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 8 minutes. It is 1 hour and 27 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 5 hours and 24 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 39 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠116.6°
At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠116.6°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠149.4°.
Moon before apogee
10 days after point of apogee on 12 December 2018 at 12:25 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 24 December 2018 at 09:52 in ♋ Cancer.
Distance to Moon 366 484 km
The Moon is 366 484 km (227 723 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 060 km (224 352 mi).
Moon before ascending node
12 days after descending node on 10 December 2018 at 17:57 in ♑ Capricorn. The Moon is located south of the ecliptic over the following day, until the lunar orbit crosses from South to North in ascending node on 24 December 2018 at 11:54 in ♋ Cancer.
Draconic month
26 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♋ Cancer, the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the cycle.
Moon at northern standstill
At 11:48 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠21.550°. This is the year's northernmost lunar standstill of 2018. Over the next 13 days the lunar orbit is going to extend southward to face maximum declination of ∠-21.553° at the point of next standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 5 January 2019 at 18:45.
Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy
The Moon is in a Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and thus forming Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy alignment.
