You are living through a very strange and extreme time for the Moon. She currently is capable of rising and setting at points on the horizon even further north than the sun does on the summer solstice, and even further south than the sun on the winter solstice. She can soar higer in the sky than the summer sun would ever hope to reach, or crawl lower along the horizon than the winter sun could, her low-to-the-ground appearance giving an illusion of hugeness a bit more convincing (imo) than the supermoon.
These most-extreme paths are called lunistices, or "lunar standstills", by analogy with solstices, a word meaning "solar standstill". A solstice is when the sun reaches her furthest rise/set points on the horizon and then "turns around", heading back the direction she came. A lunistice is the same thing but for the moon. But unlike solstices, you don't have to wait a year to see a lunistice, you only need to wait a couple weeks! She reaches both lunistices every single month!
The specific phase on which the high and low lunistices occur changes from lunar month to lunar month, but you can take a mental estimate based on proximity to the solstices/equinoxes. Which two phases are likely to be the high/low lunistice phases for a given season moves "backwards" thru the phase cycle over the course of the year.
| High Lunistice (highest phase) | Low Lunistice (lowest phase) | |
|---|---|---|
| Near Summer Solstice | 🌑 New (Not visible) | 🌕 Full (All Night) |
| Between Summer and Fall | 🌘 Wn. Cr. (Mornings) | 🌔 Wx. Gib. (Evenings) |
| Near Fall Equinox | 🌗 3rd Q. (Mornings) | 🌓 1st Q. (Evenings) |
| Between Fall and Winter | 🌖Wn. Gib. (Mornings) | 🌒 Wx. Cr. (Evenings) |
| Near Winter Solstice | 🌕 Full (All Night) | 🌑 New (Not visible) |
| Between Winter and Spring | 🌔 Wx. Gib. (Evenings) | 🌘 Wn. Cr. (Mornings) |
| Near Spring Equinox | 🌓 1st Q. (Evenings) | 🌗 3rd Q. (Mornings) |
| Between Spring and Summer | 🌒 Wx. Cr. (Evenings) | 🌖Wn. Gib. (Mornings) |
Anyways, This is a very remarkable time, and we haven't even seen the best of it; the difference between the moon's high and low lunistices will only get more extreme over the coming years, though admittedly not visibly by much- the rate of increasing difference of the lunistices is slowing down we approach the peak of a cycle almost 20 years in the making (18.6 to be precise). It will culminate in January 2025 with the most-extreme pair of lunistices, which are known collectively as the Major Lunar Standstill, or Major Lunistice (confusingly singularized, even though there is both a most-extreme High Lunistice and a most-extreme Low Lunistice). After the Major Lunar Standstill, every passing year will bring less and less exaggerated differences between the lunistices, until in 2034, the differences between the highest and lowest possible paths the moon can take will be noticeably diminished (the Minor Lunar Standstill)- and then the cycle will start again.
And yet, despite the fact that you are living through A Wonderful Astronomical Event You Will Not Witness Again Until 2043, there doesn't seem to be alot of awareness of it. There's no This Is How To See The Once-In-A-Decade Ultra-Rare Super Wolf Blue Piss-Moon type articles. I think there's a few reasons:
- Lunistices are in themselves obscure (and they shouldn't be, when they're so cool, but they are, because our society just does not emphasize or value the moon, and knowing things about the moon)
- The major lunistice cycle moves very slowly, so its very easy for this kind of extreme swing between high and low lunistice to sneak up on you like a boiling frog over the years without you realizing it
- The news relies on fomo and spectacle and snappy, easy-to-explain things to "go viral". They have to explain first what a lunistice is, and then that there's a little-known 18.6 year cycle of meta-variation of lunistices. And it's hard to drum up as much hype and clicks for lunistices versus, say, an eclipse, or a comet, or other things of rarity. The major lunistice cycle is a slow astronomical event of abundance, it doesn't really have a make-or-break date, it's for everyone on earth; you're not going to "miss out on it" if you know it's happening. It will look pretty much just as spectactular at the peak of the major lunistice cycle as it will for many months (and really even years) before/after, and you will almost certainly have chances to observe and appreciate it it no matter if you get clouded out on a particular day.
I dont have much more to say. Go out and look at the moon and think about the moon, its good for your brain. The best way to apprecate the lunistices is to just pay a little bit of attention every day or few, over the course of months and years. If you want a more sciencey description of lunistices, I recommend this page from the University of Massachussets.
Try to make predictions using the table I made about what phases will be high vs low, and test them out by going outside and trying to find the moon during those phases! It's alot of fun, its the perfect way to get a feel for the lunistices, and the Low Lunistice in particular is I think a great time for lunar photography if you can get a clear sightline, because the proximity to the horizon makes her look bigger and gives more chances for cool shots of terrestrial objects next to the moon. Right now in the northern hemisphere, the low lunistice is an evening crescent moon! So cool!
