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Ephemeris: 01/25/2024 – Where is the full moon in winter?

January 25, 2024

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, January 25th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 5:41, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:08. The Moon, at full today, will rise at 5:30 this evening.

The exact time that the Moon will be full, at least to the nearest minute is 12:54 this afternoon. Have you ever noticed the placement of the full moon in the sky between winter and summer? The full moon near the winter solstice moves very high at midnight, while the full moon near the summer solstice is seen quite low in the south. For the Moon to be full, it must be nearly opposite the Sun in the sky, so we see it fully illuminated as the Sun does. The Moon’s orbit is close to the Sun’s apparent path in the sky, the ecliptic, which is the projection of the Earth’s orbit of the Sun. So the Moon now is near, and actually a bit north of, where the Sun will be 6 months from now in mid to late July.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The altitude of the full moon on two dates 6 lunar months apart. In winter the moon rides high in the south (66 degrees altitude). That would be tomorrow morning. Six lunar months later on July 21st the full moon rides very low in the south (19 degrees altitude). This cylindrical view represents the altitude uniformly, but is distorted horizontally with altitude, which is why the winter high altitude full moon appears distorted. Created using Stellarium.
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