Full Moon

When you can see it

It rises as the sun sets, is up all night, and sets as the sun rises. That is the definition rather than a coincidence: opposite the sun in space means opposite the sun in the sky, so a full moon is the only phase visible for the entire night.

What is happening up there

The moon reaches opposition, 180 degrees from the sun along the ecliptic. When the alignment is close enough the moon passes into Earth's shadow and the full moon becomes a lunar eclipse, which is why every lunar eclipse falls on a full moon. A full moon near perigee, the closest point of its orbit, is the one popularly called a supermoon.

What a full moon is said to mean

The peak of the cycle, and the phase almost every culture named. Harvest Moon, Wolf Moon, Sturgeon Moon and the rest are seasonal names for each month's full moon, most of them tied to what was happening on the land at that point in the year.

Worth saying plainly: these readings are tradition, not fact. The astronomy on this page is computed and checkable; the meanings are a cultural inheritance, offered because people find them enjoyable.

What to do under it

Photograph it at moonrise, not at midnight. Low on the horizon it is the same brightness as the landscape in front of it, so a single exposure can hold both. Once it climbs, the contrast against a dark sky is too extreme.

How to photograph the full moon