The reason this happens is that the time refers to the exact moment when the Sun and Moon are aligned on opposite sides of the Earth. This moment is known as the ‘syzygy’ of the Sun-Earth-Moon system, and can happen at any time day or night.
When is the next full Moon?
A full Moon occurs when the Moon appears as a complete circle in the sky. We see it as a full orb because the whole of the side of the Moon facing the Earth is lit up by the Sun’s rays.
The Moon produces no visible light of its own, so we can only see the parts of the Moon that are lit up by other objects.
A small amount of light comes from distant stars and the reflection of light from the Earth (known as ‘Earthshine’). However the main source of light for the Moon is the Sun.
1 / 9
Equinox Moon and Glastonbury Tor
“In 2021 I really got into imaging the Moon at a distance with something in the foreground. In this case, it is people enjoying the Full September Harvest Moon as it rises behind Glastonbury Tor.”
2 / 9
Lunar lander
“Here, the Snow Moon sets over Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. This was a fluke of a morning. I hadn’t actually intended to head out to photograph the Moon and was on my way into town to walk the dog!”
3 / 9
Moon Big Mosaic
“This is a 32-panel mosaic of the crescent Moon. The assembly process was particularly complex due to the lunar libration (wavering of the Moon as viewed from Earth), which changed during the two hours I spent shooting on that January evening. In this image you can see the most famous craters, rims, mountains, domes and seas of this lunar phase.”
4 / 9
A Titanium Moon
5 / 9
The Moon And the Shard
6 / 9
Tycho Crater Region with Colours
“It’s always great to see the colours of the Moon teased out in an image and this one cranks it up to 11, showing our neighbour to be enormously complex.” – Steve Marsh, Art Editor at the BBC Sky at Night Magazine
7 / 9
HDR Partial Lunar Eclipse With Clouds
8 / 9
Moon Base
“This aptly named image could almost be a model set from a 1950s/1960s science fiction television programme! The surreal atmosphere of this image is greatly enhanced by the high thin cloud and the monochrome palette with the Full Moon adding drama to the scene, either indicating serenity or impending doom (depending on the plot).” – Mandy Bailey, Astronomy Secretary for the Royal Astronomical Society, Open University lecturer and freelance science editor
9 / 9
Arch of Selene (I Saw the Whole of the Moon)
The Moon appears as different shapes in the sky depending on its ‘phase’, from new Moon to full Moon via ‘waxing’ (growing) and ‘waning’ (shrinking) moons. These phases are determined by the relative positions of the Sun, Earth and Moon.
If the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun in its orbit, then the back side of the Moon is lit up and the side facing the Earth is in darkness. This is called a new Moon.
If the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth to the Sun, then the near side of the Moon will be fully lit up: a full Moon.
How often does a full Moon occur?
A full Moon happens roughly every 29.5 days. This is the length of time it takes for the Moon to go through one whole lunar phase cycle.
Join our newsletter to get astronomy guides, space news and the latest updates from the Royal Observatory
Is there a full Moon every month?
The Moon’s phases and the months of the year are inextricably linked – the word ‘month’ even takes its root from the word ‘moon’.
A month was originally defined to be either 29 or 30 days, roughly equal to the 29.5-day lunar cycle. However, some of our calendar months were later padded out with extra days, in order that 12 months would make up one complete 365-day solar year.
Because our modern calendar isn’t quite in line with the Moon’s phases, sometimes we get more than one full Moon in a month. This is commonly known as a blue moon.
Tor.com
Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:18pm 21 comments 1 Favorite [+]
The Sun the Moon and the Stars is not what you might expect of a fairytale retelling. Indeed, when it was originally published in Terri Windling’s excellent series of fantasy retellings of classic tales, with a long introduction about what fairytales are and a brief afterword about the Hungarian folk tradition, I imagine it must have been utterly baffling. You’d expect something straightforward like Patricia Wrede’s Snow White and Rose Red, or Charles de Lint’s Jack the Giant Killer, and instead this. It’s the story of a man painting a picture, and at the same time telling, in traditional form, a traditional Hungarian fairytale. It isn’t a fantasy novel at all—it’s a perfectly mainstream novel about a guy painting a picture and telling a story. There’s no fantasy element outside the story. And there’s no direct connection between the story he tells—which is likely to be completely new to most readers—and the other events of the book. It’s literally a fairytale retelling, someone retelling a fairytale, and it’s all told as a fairytale, with the narrator asking “bones?”, meaning “have you had enough yet?” at the end of each chapter, but it really isn’t what people would have been likely to expect.
What makes it brilliant is the way that it’s about the process of creation. Greg Kovacs, a painter, starts to paint in oils on a huge canvas, and as he goes on he discovers what he’s painting and talks about his process. Also he chats and squabbles with the other artists who share a studio with him, considers getting honest work as a draftsman, and decides to put on a show. Considered as plot, it isn’t one, but it’s utterly astonishing all the same because it talks about the way art is made in exactly the kind of way nothing else does—and woven in and out of it is the Hungarian fairytale of a Taltos who tricks and defeats monsters to steal the sun the moon and the stars and put them into the sky. He talks about painting, but it applies to any process of creation, certainly writing. If you want to know how writers actually write, either so you can do it yourself or just out of curiosity, I can’t think of anything better. It’s a book I often re-read near the beginning of starting a project, just to encourage myself.
There are some parallels between the fairytale Greg tells and the rest of the novel. First, the painting is of Apollo and Artemis killing Uranus, and it took me much longer than it should have to see that they are the sun the moon and the stars. Also, the fairytale is about doing something that should be impossible—and some bits of it are unexpectedly easy and other bits unexpectedly difficult, just like the process. There aren’t any exact parallels, and certainly not between the section of the fairytale in each chapter and the events of that chapter, but the loose parallels are there.
The interactions between Greg and the other members of the studio are what gives the book momentum and raises questions you want to see answered—will they survive as a group, will they have a show, will Greg finish his picture? They’re very real people, and Greg’s relationship with them changes, and affects everything else. I really like the way they criticize each other’s work, this is another part of the process of creation you rarely see written about. Brust describes something real here, and when he talks about technique and serendipity, something that you won’t find in books about how to write.
I also like the fact that Greg’s girlfriend, Debbie, is there and supportive throughout the book. You can ask yourself if he deserves her, but they have a romantic relationship that’s steady and doesn’t change. Brust also does this in Jhereg. It’s surprisingly rare for a book not to have a romance subplot—either the hero falls in love or falls out of love and finds new love. I find it really refreshing and unusual to read something that doesn’t have this kind of movement, but an assumed ongoing love. The emotional movement of The Sun the Moon and the Stars is all revolving around creation and art.
The thing that appeals to me least, after multiple re-readings, is the thing that made me pick the book up in the first place—the retelling of the Hungarian fairytale. I don’t skip it, because I keep thinking I’m missing something in it and I’ll eventually figure it out, but I care about the rest of it a lot more. It doesn’t have resonance for me, and the rest of it really does.
I know from previous discussions that some people love this book and others hate it, and it isn’t as simple as writers loving it and non-writers hating it. Both love and hate for it seems to be quite irrational and much stronger than you’d think. It’s a slim little book to inspire such passions. I love it, of course. I used to think that anyone who created art, of any form, would like it, but I now know it doesn’t work for everyone. But I still love it, and come back to it when I want to know that other people do this thing and make it work.
Jo Walton is a science fiction and fantasy writer. She’s published eight novels, most recently Half a Crown and Lifelode, and two poetry collections. She reads a lot, and blogs about it here regularly. She comes from Wales but lives in Montreal where the food and books are more varied.
Albums
Funk is unfortunately an understated and forgotten genre in our day and age. Thankfully, this 2015 album from Vulfpeck is here to scratch that undeniable funky itch we all have. It’s a healthy mix of powerful vocals, bounce keys, and bass that can only be described as stanky. You may be familiar with the track “Back Pocket,” but this album has so much more to offer. It’s an incredible joy to listen to and always ends too soon. Roll down those windows, let the cool November air in and blast this album, warming the earth with the power of funk.
Growing up in a Latin household, there were many music genres that my mom would listen to, such as cumbia, urban Latin, bachata etc. Although, I was never a fan of Latin country music. It wasn’t until recently that I became obsessed with Mexican artist Peso Pluma and his album “GÉNISIS.” His music is a Sinaloa-style genre mixed with urban Latin which makes his voice and music quite addicting. “Rosa Pastel,” “Luna” and “Lady Gaga” have been on repeat. Listening to Peso Pluma has made me appreciate the art and history of country Latin music. I would recommend listening to Peso Pluma even if you don’t understand Spanish — so worth it!
Carly Rae Jepsen has spent the last few years exploring a new sound. This album is a great representation of that. The album is fun and synthy. Each song has its own funky, electric pop sound. I especially like the songs “Psychedelic Switch” and “Kollage.” For a high-energy collection of music to dance to, this album is the place to look. It’s experimental, highly produced and a culmination of this new era of music Jepsen’s been leaning into. It has a fresh sound that I haven’t heard much of in this year’s new music.
Artists
From time to time, I’ll check out Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist that’s curated each week for every Spotify user. I don’t usually expect to discover any artists or songs that I’ll love. Yet, my expectations proved wrong with a single listen of “Crush” by Unflirt. Since that first listen, I’ve fallen in love with all of Unflirt’s songs (well, all eight of them). Her dreamy sound and lyrical expression of love and longing made it easy for her to become my top Spotify artist. I definitely recommend her to anyone who likes beabadoobee, whom she shares a similar sound with.
Few games have felt like they have transcended the medium altogether. Kentucky Route Zero is one such game. You play a character named Conway. He needs to deliver a price of furniture to an address that can only be reached by a highway called Route Zero. This highway seems to exist outside of space and time. This magical realist game is a mix somewhere between a David Lynch movie and a surrealist novel. The game itself is dialogue-heavy, set against the backdrop of beautiful set pieces. It will absolutely blow your mind if you play it.
Podcasts
Biweekly I have had the joy of listening to new episodes of “We’re Here to Help.” The podcast is hosted by Jake Johnson and Gareth Reynolds, who give callers advice to solve their unique problems. The issues are always hilariously outrageous and the advice the hosts share is typically just as absurd. It often feels like we’re getting a peak into the secret struggles of strangers as callers use pseudonyms to hide their identities. I’ve found myself on multiple occasions holding in hysterical laughter as I listened to the pod at my quiet desk job. It’s the perfect entertainment for anyone looking to brighten their day.
November is a time for hunger, being around those you love and going out and seeing the beauties of nature. Nothing screams all of the above more than “The Troop” by Nick Cutter. This novel is about a Boy Scout troop and their scoutmaster getting trapped on an island in the Canadian wilderness with a man with an insatiable appetite. No, it isn’t a story about cannibals, but about something much more sinister, involving immoral science experiments, worms and just how teenage boys really don’t know how to survive when trapped together. It is very “Lord of the Flies” meets David Cronenberg. Do not read this if you are easily grossed out. If you are at all scared of worms, this is not the book for you. But, if you want a fantastically disgusting coming-of-age adjacent story, then check out “The Troop.”
