Low Sun, High Moon, by Dennis Mammana – haroonabadvital.com
Week of December 8-14, 2024
The last full moon of the year will occur on the night of Saturday, December 14. As the sun sets behind the southwestern horizon late that afternoon, face in the opposite direction and you’ll see the full moon rising.
As we approach the winter solstice on the 21st, also known as the first day of winter in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere, we have a good opportunity to check out the movements of the Sun and Moon across our sky.
Beginning stargazers are often confused about the movements of our natural satellite. This is not surprising. After all, the Moon’s orbital motion around Earth combined with our daily rotation can make it very difficult to follow.
The trick is not to try to understand the complexities of its roughly 28-day cycle, but to break its movement down into simple parts. Pick just one phase of the moon and try to understand – or even predict – how its position will change over time. Since the moon will be full this week, let’s start here.
A full moon occurs when the moon is completely illuminated by the sun. For this to happen, it must be located on the opposite side of the sky from the sun. Therefore, one would expect that it would also behave in an opposite manner to the Sun.
And it is. When the sun sets, the full moon rises. When the sun rises, the full moon sets. But not only that, it rises and sets completely on the other side of the sky. To see where the full moon will rise on the eastern horizon, check the shadow created by the setting sun. It will point directly towards the position of the rising full moon.
In winter in the Northern Hemisphere, when the afternoon sun dips below the southwestern horizon, the full moon will rise in the northeast. During this season, the Sun is very low across the daytime sky, its light rays falling on us at a shallow angle and contributing to lower temperatures. Because the full moon always behaves in the opposite direction, you can expect it to rise high across the winter night sky and set in the northwest. when? At sunrise of course!
Because the winter full moon appears so high in the night sky, its light passes through a thinner column of the atmosphere and can make the full moon appear very dazzling.
Of course, in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the whole scenario reverses. The summer sun rises in the northeast and rises high across the daytime sky; Its rising trajectory contributes to our rising temperatures. The full moon—always the opposite—rises at sunset in the southeast during the summer and never appears very high in the night sky. During this time, moonlight passes through a much larger atmosphere and therefore does not appear quite as bright as it does in winter.
Over the course of an entire year, you will notice that the rising full moon will swing north and south along the eastern horizon, just as the sun does during its morning rise, except that the full moon will appear opposite where the sun appeared in the morning.
The last full moon of the year occurs on December 14.
Visit Denise Mammana at dennismammana.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at Creators.com.
Photo courtesy of Dennis Mamana
