Thank our Moon’s wacky orbit for all this lunacy. Note that the 2020 Full Moon is also the 2nd of the month… A ‘Mini-Blue Halloween Moon?’ Image credit: Dave Dickinson ![]() Mini-Moons by year for the remainder of the decade. ![]() What is the Mini-Moon, you might ask? As with the often poorly defined Supermoon, we like to eschew the ambiguous ‘90% of its orbit’ definition, and simply refer to it as a Full Moon occurring within 24 hours of lunar apogee, or its farthest point from the Earth in its orbit.įun fact: the 29.55 day period from perigee to perigee (or lunar apogee-to-apogee) is known as an anomalistic month. The 2015 Mini-Moon was even closer, in the 10 hour range, but you’ll have to wait until December 10 th, 2030 to find a closer occurance. Though apogee on the 21 st is 406,350 km distant – a bit on the far end, but the third most distant for the year by 300 km - this week’s Full Moon is the closest to apogee for 2016 time-wise. Mini-Moon 2016: This year’s Mini-Moon falls on April 22 nd at 5:25 Universal Time (UT), just 13 hours and 19 minutes after lunar apogee the evening prior at 16:06 UT on April 21 st. ![]() It’s the smallest Full Moon of 2016, something we here at Universe Today have christened the Mini-Moon. Do you welcome the extra evening light of the Full Moon, or curse the additional light pollution? Either way, this week’s Full Moon on Friday April 22 nd is special.
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