October 9, 2022
Full moon occurs today at 3:55 pm CDT. Full moons occur roughly 29.5 days apart. This cycle of the Moon is called a synodic month which is still the basis for our calendar month. Because there are 12.4 lunar cycles in a calendar year, it is possible to have more than 12 full moons a year. This happens next in 2023 with the blue moon on August 30/31, 2022.
Although the full moon occurs at 3:55 pm, the Moon doesn’t rise until 6:41 pm. It reaches its highest point in the sky at 12:22 am – shown above. Even though the official full moon has passed by 12:22 am, the Moon will still appear 99% illuminated as shown in the bottom right. Star map created using Stellarium. Image credit: NASA SVS