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 19 December 2021 at 04:36 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 is entering ♋ Cancer
Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1771"
Lunar disc appears visually 9.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1771" and ∠1950".
It is Cold Moon
The Full Moon this days is the Cold of December 2021.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Last Quarter in Libra ♎ on 27 December 2021 at 02:24
- New Moon in Capricorn ♑ on 2 January 2022 at 18:33
- First Quarter in Aries ♈ on 9 January 2022 at 18:11
- Full Moon in Cancer ♋ on 17 January 2022 at 23:49
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 271 / 1224
The Moon is 15 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the middle part of current synodic month. This is lunation 271 of Meeus index or 1224 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.45 days
The length of the lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 50 minutes. It is 23 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 54 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 15 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠358.3°
At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠358.3°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠13.9°.
Moon after apogee
1 day after point of apogee on 18 December 2021 at 02:16 in ♊ Gemini. The lunar orbit is getting narrow, while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days, until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 January 2022 at 23:00 in ♐ Sagittarius.
Distance to Moon 404 809 km
The Moon is 404 809 km (251 537 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 13 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 037 km (222 474 mi).
Moon after ascending node
2 days after ascending node on 17 December 2021 at 00:12 in ♊ Gemini. The Moon is located north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days, until the lunar orbit crosses from North to South in descending node on 31 December 2021 at 01:07 in ♐ Sagittarius.
Draconic month
2 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♊ Gemini, the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the cycle.
Moon before northern standstill
13 days since the previous standstill on 6 December 2021 at 02:25 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.331°, the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠26.306° at the point of next northern standstill on 20 December 2021 at 04:32 in ♋ Cancer.
Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy
The Moon is in a Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and thus forming Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy alignment.
