CharacteristicsAlthough it
takes only 27.322 days on
average for the Moon to
complete one orbit around the
Earth (the sidereal month), as
a result of the Earth's
orbital motion around the Sun
it requires about two
additional days for the Earth,
Moon, and Sun to acquire the
same relative geometry. So on
average the number
more

CharacteristicsAlthough it
takes only 27.322 days on
average for the Moon to
complete one orbit around the
Earth (the sidereal month), as
a result of the Earth's
orbital motion around the Sun
it requires about two
additional days for the Earth,
Moon, and Sun to acquire the
same relative geometry. So on
average the number of days
between two similar phases
(e.g., between one full moon
and the next full moon) is
about 29.531 days. This period
is referred to as a lunation,
lunar month, or synodic month.
The actual number of days in a
lunation can vary from about
29.272 to 29.833 because the
velocities of the Moon and of
the Earth are not constant in
their elliptic orbits, and
because of gravitational
interactions with other bodies
in the solar system.
[1][2]Because the month of
February has only 28 days (or
29 in a leap year), there have
been a few occasions during
which this month has been
without a full moon. In
particular, there was no full
moon in February of 1866,
1885, 1915, 1934, 1961 or
1999[3]. There will be no full
moon during February of
2018[4]. In these years, there
were instead either two full
moons in January, March, or
both (as in 1999). In the leap
year of 1972, there was a full
moon on February 29. The
previous February 29 full moon
occurred in 1820 and before
that in 1752.A full moon is
often thought of as an event
of a full night's duration.
This is somewhat misleading,
as the Moon seen from Earth is
continuously becoming larger
or smaller (though much too
slowly to notice with the
naked eye). Its absolute
maximum size occurs at the
moment expansion has stopped,
and when graphed, its tangent
slope is zero. For any given
location, about half of these
absolute maximum full moons
will be potentially visible,
as the other half occur during
the day. Many almanacs list
full moons not just by date,
but by their exact time as
well (usually in GMT). Typical
monthly calendars which
include phases of the moon may
be off by one day if intended
for use in a different time
zone.The date and time of a
specific full moon (assuming a
circular orbit) can be
calculated from the
equation[5]: D = 20.362954
29.5305888531 imes N
102.19 imes 10^{-12} imes
N^2where D is the number of
days since 1 January 2000
00:00:00 UTC, and N is an
integer number of full moons,
starting with 0 for the first
full moon of the year 2000.
The true time of a full moon
may differ from this
approximation by up to about
14.5 hours as a result of the
non-circularity of the moon's
orbit.[citation needed] The
age and apparent size of the
full moon vary in a cycle of
just under 14 synodic months,
which has been referred to as
a full moon cycle.Full moons
are generally a poor time to
conduct astronomical
observations, since the bright
reflected sunlight from the
moon overwhelms the dimmer
light from stars.[edit]
Folklore See also: The
Moon in mythology and Lunar
effectFull Moons are
traditionally associated with
temporal insomnia, insanity
(hence the terms lunacy and
lunatic) and various magical
phenomena such as lycanthropy.
Psychologists, however, have
found that there is no strong
evidence for effects on human
behaviour around the time of a
full moon [6]. They find that
studies are generally not
consistent, with some showing
a positive effect and others
showing a negative effect. In
one instance, the December 23,
2000 issue of the British
Medical Journal published two
studies on dog bite admission
to hospitals in England and
Australia. The study of the
Bradford Royal Infirmary found
that dog bites were twice as
common during a full moon,
whereas the study conducted by
the public hospitals in
Australia found that they were
less likely.Many neopagans
hold a monthly ritual called
an Esbat at each full moon,
while some people practicing
traditional Chinese religions
prepare their ritual offerings
to their ancestors and deities
on every full and new moon.

Category Travel & Places

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