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[Centaur]

My 2014 table of Full Moons and their Chicago risings is now available at www.CurtRenz.com/moon

The calculations were made for the location of the Adler Planetarium but should be good enough throughout Chicagoland.

The center column indicates the moment when the Moon would theoretically appear most fully illuminated each month. Of course half of the time the Moon would actually be below the horizon. Shown are the percentage of the lunar disk illuminated, angular diameter and relative brightness.

The left and right columns indicate the two risings of the Moon on either side of the moment of greatest illumination. In addition to the other data the Moon’s rising azimuth is given. The data in red is for the monthly moonrise in which the Moon is the most fully illuminated.

[Paulie pchris00]

The first full Moon of 20:14 occurred at 10:44 PM CST. I was out observing Luna about 2 1/2 hours before that. So while these images are from a little before "full," it was close enough to call it the first full Moon of the year.




Full Moon, as imaged by my Samsung phone.




Full Moon, playing with contrast to highlight albedo differences.




Luna, with Jupiter nearby.


I don't remember the temperature or windchill conditions for this session, but it was cold. Here's hoping it was not just the first full Moon of 2014, but the coldest one.

[Centaur]

Thanks, Paulie, for braving the cold and sharing your fine Full Moon photos. You are a trooper, no matter what Yoda says.

Indeed, it can be called a Full Moon for about a day on either side of maximum. Certainly within 12 hours. It was closer to full than you thought. My diagram for 15 Full Moons gives the geocentric (center of Earth) time for greatest illumination, and that indeed was 22:44 CST. It is my chart of Full Moon Rising over Chicago that provides a better time for us. That was 21:39 CST. The Full Moon time for my monthly astronomical calendar (21:40) is for Arlington Heights and is usually within a minute or two of that for the Adler Planetarium.  

For Full Moon predictions, popular publications give the time for the 180° difference in geocentric ecliptical longitude between the Moon and Sun. That's relatively easy to calculate, but is a bit off if one wants the time of greatest fraction of the lunar disk illuminated geocentrically, let alone topocentrically. The Moon's ecliptical latitude and changes in distance are factors ignored by the traditional method in addition to an observer's location on the surface of the Earth. Now that I have a high speed computer and no longer use a slide rule or logarithm tables, I can quickly predict the time the Moon appears fullest for any location.

Let's hope Joe resumes Full Moon parties when the weather warms up.