13 Full Moon Facts to Brag About

The moon has been with us since ancient times. It has always exerted an attractive effect on humanity. Especially on nights with a full moon, the silver ball in the starry sky enchants again and again.

But what do we know about the moon? Why does it always glow differently? Is he keeping us awake? Does it have other effects? We will inform you.

In 2023 we will experience two lunar eclipses. The first of these will take place on May 5. It is theoretically also visible in Switzerland. However, the lunar eclipse in May will not be as spectacular as others for two reasons.

On the one hand, the lunar eclipse is a penumbral eclipse. This means that Earth’s lighter penumbra falls on the Moon’s surface, but the darker umbra misses our satellite. The moon will darken just a little bit, but will probably be hard to distinguish from the “normal” full moon.

On the other hand, it won’t be really dark when it gets dark: it starts at 5:14 PM in Germany and ends at 9:31 PM.

When we look at the satellite, it appears very small. In fact, at 3,474 kilometers in diameter, it is almost a quarter the size of Earth at 12,742 kilometers in diameter. Compared to the sun, which has a diameter of 1,392,700 kilometers, the moon, like our planet, is small.

The moon does not shine by itself, just like the earth is always half illuminated by the sun. Whether we see a crescent moon, full moon, or just a crescent moon from here depends on how the moon is relative to the Earth.

When the Earth, Moon and Sun form a right angle, we see a crescent moon. When the Moon and Sun are opposite each other — that is, when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned — we see either a new moon or a full moon.

The lunar cycle, also known as lunation, is the time period from one new moon to the next. During this time we see constantly changing figures of light. We distinguish:

What is important is that the moon is actually constantly illuminated by the sun. Only its respective position on Earth sometimes allows us to see only part of the illuminated area.

By the way: if you sometimes wonder what phase the moon is in when you look at the sky, there is a “trick” for you: you have to imagine the “curved” handwriting you learned at school. When the moon is waning, it follows a lowercase “a” – the bulge is on the left side. As it increases, it follows a small “z” – with a bulge to the right.

The moon has no fixed position. He is always moving. Just like the Earth. But there is a big difference. The earth revolves around the sun in one year. 365 days, 5 hours, 48 ​​minutes and 46 seconds to be exact. However, the satellite of the Earth does not take a year to orbit our planet, but only 27 days, 7 hours and 43.7 minutes. So about a month.

Due to the constant movement of the moon, we constantly see other facets of the moon and its light.

A full moon is called a supermoon if it is very close to Earth. Since the 1970s, a supermoon has been spoken of when the distance between the moon and the Earth is less than 367,600 kilometers.

According to the US space agency NASA, the super moon appears about 17 percent larger due to its small distance and its light even shines up to 30 percent brighter compared to the full moon, which is farthest away.

The next supermoon is on August 1, 2023.

As a rule, a supermoon can be admired three to four times a year – and always in the following months. In 2022, this happened four times in a row (May, June, July and August). At a distance of only 357,418 kilometers, the full moon came closest to Earth in July.

Because the moon does not revolve around the earth in a perfect circle, but in an elliptical orbit, it can be both close and far from the earth. If it happens that the moon is in the full moon phase and at the same time in perigee (the point closest to the earth), it is popularly referred to as a supermoon.

At perigee, the moon is on average about 363,300 kilometers away. At its greatest distance, the so-called apogee, this distance increases to an average of 405,500.

The moon is largely responsible for the ebb and flow. This effect is related to gravity. The moon attracts the water. But because the earth is a lot bigger, it does not attract the amount of water, but the one at the ends. Here, the Earth’s gravity does not pull the water in the opposite direction. This is what it looks like:

The water is not directly attracted to the moon, but collects on the side facing towards and away from the moon. This creates the high tide in these parts of the earth and the low tide at the ends. Because this creates two tide peaks (one on the opposite side and one on the near side), there are usually two tides per day.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is between the Moon and the Sun and the shadow of the globe completely covers the Moon. So by definition there is always (more or less) full moon when a lunar eclipse can be observed. This phenomenon is relatively common, but not always observable from all parts of the world. There are at least two lunar eclipses per year.

The next lunar eclipse observable from Switzerland will occur on May 5, 2023. This is a penumbral lunar eclipse, in which the entire moon – unlike the total or partial eclipse – is still slightly illuminated by direct sunlight.

The moon revolves not only around the earth, but also around itself – in a so-called bound rotation. This means that it always faces the same side of the Earth and we only see this side of the Moon from Earth. So we never see the other side of the moon. On the other hand, we see dark lowlands, called mares, on the lunar surface. Some people interpret different figures from the lowlands.

An example is the rabbit. Others think they can see a face in the moon. Depending on where we are, the moon is positioned differently than we know it from Switzerland. In the southern hemisphere, as seen from us, it is upside down. Instead of a rabbit, the local residents see a woman carrying firewood on her back.

For us, the tasks of the moon and the sun are clearly divided: the sun shines during the day and the moon shines at night. But that’s not entirely true. Sometimes the moon can also be seen in the sky during the day. Does the same also apply to the full moon? Unfortunately not. The full moon is not based on whether it is day or night with us.

The astronomical event occurs when the sun, earth and moon are in space. Exactly in that order. The earth is then between these two celestial bodies. At this time it is night in the hemisphere away from the sun and the full moon can be seen from there. It is still day on the other side of the hemisphere. You can’t see the full moon there because it hides behind the Earth. This explains why the lunar calendar sometimes indicates that the full moon falls in the middle of the day.

Many people complain that the full moon robs them of sleep. But is the moon really responsible for poor and restless sleep?

In 2013, Swiss researchers tried to find out the full moon effect in a group of test subjects in a sleep lab. The subjects took an average of 5 minutes longer to fall asleep. In addition, the sleep duration and deep sleep phase were shorter than normal, but the study has a number of weaknesses, which the researchers themselves later acknowledged. Only 33 people were tested and the number of full moon nights studied was very small. Further studies failed to find any connection between human sleep and the phases of the moon.

It is known that light affects our sleep rhythm. So it could be that the bright full moon is the reason for an easier night’s sleep. An argument that could refute this: the three nights around the night of the full moon are twelve times brighter than the crescent moon.

The menstrual cycle lasts an average of 28 days, almost as long as the moon revolves around the earth. Is this a coincidence? Yes, according to a 2019 study that looked at the cycles of 1.5 million women who had not used hormonal contraception. No evidence has been found that there is a relationship between the phases of the moon and menstruation.

However, the length of the menstrual cycle can vary based on age and ethnicity. In addition, the length of the menstrual cycle varies in animals, so in humans it seems to be a coincidence.

Full moon and howling wolves – in movies they often belong together. But do animals really howl at the full moon?

No. Howling is the language of wolves, so they interact with their own kind and call for a hunt. Because the wolves mainly hunt at dusk, you will mainly hear them at night. While it may seem as if they are crying and stretching their heads to the moon. In fact, they do it to get a better range.

You can find the year’s full moon calendar and associated names of the Algonquin, a North American Native American tribe, here:

(cst)