The Moon will reach full phase. At this time in its monthly cycle of phases, the Moon lies almost directly opposite the Sun in the sky, placing it high above the horizon for much of the night.

This month's full moon will take place unusually close to the time of month when the Moon also makes its closest approach to the Earth – called its perigee. This means the moon will appear slightly larger and brighter than at other times, though any difference is imperceptible to the unaided eye. Perigee full moons such as this occur roughly once every 13 months.

The sequence of full moons through the year are often assigned names according to the seasons in which they fall. This month's will be the first to fall in summer 2014 – the Hay Moon.

Over the nights following 12 July, the Moon will rise around an hour later each day, becoming prominent later in the night. Within a few days, it will only be visible in the pre-dawn and early-morning sky. By the time it reaches last quarter, a week after full moon, it will rise at around midnight and set at around noon.

At the exact moment when the Moon reaches full phase, it will lie at a declination of -17°01' in the constellation Sagittarius , and so will appear highest in the southern hemisphere. It will be visible from all latitudes north of 62°N. Its distance from the Earth will be 358,000 km.

The exact position of the Moon at the time it reaches full phase will be:

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

Source

The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.

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Image credit

Simulated image courtesy of Tom Ruen.

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