Home   Sun, Moon & Space   Moon   Micromoon
World Time
Time Made Simple, Anywhere

What Is a Micromoon?

A Micromoon is when a Full Moon or a New Moon coincides with apogee, the point in the Moon's orbit farthest away from Earth.

Full Moon and branches against a dark sky.
A Micro Moon is a Full or New Moon near apogee—the Moon’s farthest point from Earth.
©iStockphoto.com/Wouter van Caspel

Your Moon guide for November

What’s up in the sky in November?

When’s the Next Micromoon?

Here are the dates of the next Micromoons.

  • December 9, 2026 (Micro New Moon)
  • January 7, 2027 (Micro New Moon)
  • February 6, 2027 (Micro New Moon)

(The above dates are UTC. Find your local Moon phase times.)

Here at mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev, we’ve just changed the way we define Supermoons and Micromoons—we explain why on our Supermoon page. At the moment, we’re in the middle of updating the rest of our pages to reflect this change.

The Farthest Point

The Moon orbits Earth in an elliptical path, which means one side of the path is closer to the Earth than the other.

The point in the Moon’s orbit closest to Earth is called perigee, while the point in the orbit farthest from Earth is known as apogee. The average distance between Earth and the Moon is 382,500 kilometers or 237,700 miles.

When a Full Moon or a New Moon occurs around apogee, it’s called a Micromoon, Minimoon or Apogee Moon. Like any other New Moon night, a Micro New Moon night is a good time to stargaze.

What can you see in your night sky tonight?

A Full or New Moon that occurs around perigee is called a Supermoon.

How can Full Moon be in the daytime?

May Look Smaller

A Micro Full Moon’s angular size is 12.5%–14.1% smaller than a Super Full Moon, and 5.9%–6.9% smaller than an average Full Moon (in years 1550–2650).

What is the Moon Illusion?
Illustrative comparison of a Supermoon and Micromoon.
A Micromoon looks smaller than a Supermoon.
Advertising

No Universal Rules

There are no universal rules as to how far away the Moon must be to qualify as a Micromoon. We explain the changes we recently made to our definition of a Supermoon here. Broadly speaking, the rule for a Micromoon is the opposite of the rule for a Supermoon.

For Micromoons, our old definition was: a Full Moon or New Moon that takes place when the center of the Moon is farther than 405,000 kilometers (ca. 251,655 miles) from the center of Earth.

Our new definition for a Micromoon is as follows: if the Earth-Moon distance at New or Full Moon is within the highest 10% of the range of lunar distances for that month, it is a Micromoon.

The Moon: Our natural satellite

Micromoon Affects the Tides

The greatest difference between high and low tide is around Full Moon and New Moon. During these Moon phases, the gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun combine to pull the ocean’s water in the same direction. These tides are known as spring tides or king tides.

Micromoons lead to around 5 cm (2 inches) smaller variation than regular spring tides, called apogean spring tides.

The tidal range is smallest during the 2 Quarter Moons, known as neaps or neap tide.

Sleep, crime, and menstruation: how Full Moons affect humans

Natural Disaster Trigger?

Old folklore accounts suggest that Full Moons and Micromoons affect human mental health and bring on natural disasters, like earthquakes, but no scientific evidence supports any such correlation.

Topics: Astronomy, Moon