The smallest full moon of the year is to fall on the Lantern Festival tomorrow, in an alignment that will not occur again until 2086, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said yesterday.
The Lantern Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the first month of the Lunisolar calendar, the museum said in a news release.
On the calendar, the first and 15th day of each month coincide approximately with the respective dates of the new moon and full moon, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Astronomical Museum
However, because each lunar phase lasts 29.53 days, the odds of the full moon falling precisely on the 15th day of the month are less than 40 percent, the museum said.
Almost half of all full moons land on the 16th day of the month, while a small portion fall either on the 14th or 17th day, it said.
This year’s Lantern Festival — which is tomorrow — is to coincide not only with a full moon, but also the smallest full moon of the year, for the first time since 1962 and the last time until 2086, the museum said, adding that because the moon’s orbit around the Earth is an ellipse, rather than a perfect circle, it is sometimes closer to Earth and sometimes farther away, making the moon appear larger or smaller.
While the smallest full moon of the year is to occur tomorrow, the largest is to take place on Oct. 17, the museum said, adding that the apparent size difference would be similar to the difference between a NT$1 and NT$5 coin.
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