Micro Full Moon spotted on Sunday night
The National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) has posted pictures of full moon from the night of Sunday (December 19), which is this year’s farthest Micro Full Moon.
A Micro Full Moon or Micromoon is the phenomenon that a Full Moon or a New Moon coincides with apogee, the point in the Moon’s orbit farthest away from Earth.The Full Moon in December is known as a Cold Moon.
“The Moon orbits Earth in an elliptical path, which means one side of the path is closer to the Earth than the other,” said NARIT’s post. “The point in the Moon's orbit closest to Earth is called perigee at an average distance of 357,000 kilometers, while the point in the orbit farthest from Earth is known as apogee at an average distance of 406,000 kilometers.”
On Sunday from 6pm to the dawn of Monday, the Moon was farthest from the Earth at 405,924 kilometers. The Micro Full Moon can be spotted with naked eyes in the eastern side of the sky.
