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Ask Eric: When Is The Actual 'Full' Moon?

Hi Eric - You mentioned last night that the moon was full…and Todd said the same thing this morning.  All three of my calendars say it is actually tonight, the 19th.   What's up with that???

- Randi

Whenever there's great weather and a big, bright full moon to go along with it, it gets a lot of buzz. So was the case this week with the 'Harvest Moon.' The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox each year. And with the equinox taking place this coming Sunday, this one got the title.

Your calendar doesn't deceive you, Randi. The full moon was in fact on Thursday, the 19th. However, its exact time of 'fullness' was at 7:13am. At that time, the moon had already set! So technically, the most you could have seen with your own eyes was just before sunrise on Thursday morning. For that reason, we referred to the full moon as 'Wednesday night's full moon.' But you can see why the date on your calendar said the 19th!

The next moonrise, on the 19th, was at 6:41pm. For that moon you'd get a 99% full waning gibbous phase. Still as full as moonrise the previous night, but not as full as moonset during the morning.

 

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