## Monday, May 10, 2010

### The true time of a full moon...

Florida Full Moon

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, when the full moon is below the horizon. Many almanacs list full moons not just by date, but by their exact time as well, usually in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)). Typical monthly calendars that include phases of the moon may be off by one day if intended for use in a different time zone.
The date and approximate time of a specific full moon (assuming a circular orbit) can be calculated from the following equation:
$d = 20.362955 + 29.530588861 \times N + 102.026 \times 10^{-12} \times N^2$
where d is the number of days since 1 January 2000 00:00:00 in the Terrestrial Time scale used in astronomical ephemerides; for Universal Time (UT) add the following approximate correction to d:
$-0.000739 - (235 \times 10^{-12})\times N^2$ days
where N is the number of full moons since the first full moon of 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.
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.

Hi my friends,

I've never thought that math can be that complicated!
I hope you got it.... I don't....*smile*.... The world of Photography is still closer to me than all those mathematical codes and formulas in Astronomy :)

Thanks for all your kind compliments yesterday. I hope all your mothers out there had a fantastic day and you got all spoiled like crazy. I'm still waiting for the phone calls from my kids.... but that's another story!

I've captured this full moon recently and gave him some color too... That's the artist freedom to do what you like with your work, right? Just be creative!

Have a wonderful day!
Susanne

Buy my photography printed, framed or stretched on Canvas here

nothingprofound said...

"And who has seen the moon, who has not seen her/Rise out of the chamber of the deep/Grand and flushed and naked..."

DH Lawrence

Intriguing photo, as always.

Susanne49 said...

Thank you for your aphorism to my moon photo today. very much appreciated, Marty!

Trotter said...

Hi Sue! OK, you gave it some colour... ;))
Don't know which calculation is used by the calendar on my blog; but it says: «Waning Crescent, 11% 7:56:45 p.m.
Ephesus Masterpieces are at Blogtrotter Two for you to enjoy; I’m sure you’ll be impressed!! Have a great week!!

Susanne49 said...

Thanks for stopping by, Manuel! Don't mind about all those "time codes" - what it counts it's only what you'll do with all THAT time, right? :))

The Retired One said...

I see! The moon is not made of cheese, it is really an ORANGE!!!!!!!

Susanne49 said...

I should have made the title: It's an Orange, not the moon!....LOL...thanks Joan! :))

richies said...