Therefore, in those lunar calendars in which each month begins on the day of the new moon, the full moon falls on either the 14th or 15th day of the lunar month. The time interval between a full moon and the next repetition of the same phase, a synodic month, averages about 29.53 days. The full moon occurs roughly once a month. This means that the lunar hemisphere facing Earth-the near side-is completely sunlit and appears as an approximately circular disk.
This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180°). The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This causes an eclipse season approximately every six months, in which a lunar eclipse can occur at the full moon phase. As the Earth revolves around the Sun, approximate axial parallelism of the Moon's orbital plane ( tilted five degrees to the Earth's orbital plane) results in the revolution of the lunar nodes relative to the Earth.
The supermoon of 14 November 2016 was 356,511 km (221,526 mi) away from the center of Earth. For other uses, see Harvest moon (disambiguation) and Hunter's moon (disambiguation). 'Harvest moon' and 'Hunter's moon' redirect here.
