December’s rare cold moon, which only occurs once every nineteen years, will be visible to sky gazers tonight.
The final full moon of the year will move across the skies tonight, but with a very infrequent twist.
The so-called ‘Cold Moon’ will rise at 15:20 GMT on 15 December and set at 09:44 on Monday morning.
It gets its name from its timing as the first full moon of winter, and has also been dubbed the Long Night Moon and the Oak Moon.
The Cold Moon takes place every year, but this time around it will also be part of a far more unique event: a ‘major lunar standstill’.
The major lunar standstill will see the moon rises and sets at its northernmost and southernmost positions on the horizon.
This rarity takes place because the moon and the sun do not follow the same path, so there is an 18.6-year cycle during which the exact places the moon rises and sets on the horizon waxes and wanes.
The major lunar standstill, or lunistice, takes place tonight because the earth and the sun are at their maximum tilts, causing the moon to rise and set at the extremes of its range.
Stonehenge, built around 5,000 years ago, is believed to have been erected with this celestial phenomenon in mind.
Those of us in eastern Wales, the Midlands and eastern England are in luck, as these are the areas most likely to have breaks in cloud coverage tonight which will give maximum visibility to this Cold Moon.
Clouds are expected elsewhere in the UK, with rain expected in western Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.
If you do have clearer skies, then the spectacular multi-coloured Geminid meteor shower will also be visible tonight.
The last major lunar standstill occured in June 2006, with the next not expected until roughly September 2043.
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