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 14 days old Moon is in ♊ Gemini.
* The exact date and time of this Full Moon phase is on 18 December 2040 at 12:16 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
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 ∠1795"
Lunar disc appears visually 8.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1795" and ∠1950".
It is Cold Moon
The Full Moon this days is the Cold of December 2040.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Last Quarter in Virgo ♍ on 26 December 2040 at 17:02
- New Moon in Capricorn ♑ on 2 January 2041 at 19:08
- First Quarter in Aries ♈ on 9 January 2041 at 10:06
- Full Moon in Cancer ♋ on 17 January 2041 at 07:11
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 506 / 1459
The Moon is 14 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the middle part of current synodic month. This is lunation 506 of Meeus index or 1459 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.48 days
The length of the lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 35 minutes. It is 1 hour longer than the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decreasing with the true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).
Lunation length shorter than mean
The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 9 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠323.5°
At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠323.5°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠342.7°.
Moon before perigee
11 days after point of perigee on 6 December 2040 at 13:20 in ♑ Capricorn. The lunar orbit is getting widen, while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days, until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 22 December 2040 at 13:29 in ♌ Leo.
Distance to Moon 399 364 km
The Moon is 399 364 km (248 153 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 778 km (252 139 mi).
Moon after ascending node
2 days after ascending node on 15 December 2040 at 21:13 in ♉ Taurus. 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 30 December 2040 at 10:13 in ♏ Scorpio.
Draconic month
2 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♉ Taurus, the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the cycle.
Moon before northern standstill
12 days since the previous standstill on 6 December 2040 at 01:37 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.791°, the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠26.761° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 December 2040 at 10:11 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.
