Astronomy Picture of the Day - Major Lunar Standstill 2024-2025

NASA ^ | 20 Jun, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: Luca Vanzella, Alister Ling

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, planet Earth lies on the horizon in this stack of panoramic composite images. In a monthly time series arranged vertically top to bottom the ambitious photographic project follows the annual north-south swing of sunrise points, from June solstice to December solstice and back again. It also follows the corresponding, but definitely harder to track, Full Moon rise. Of course, the north-south swing of moonrise runs opposite sunrise along the horizon. But these rising Full Moons also span a wider range on the horizon than the sunrises. That's because the well-planned project (as shown in this video) covers the period June 2024 to June 2025, centered on a major lunar standstill. Major lunar standstills represent extremes in the north-south range of moonrise driven by the 18.6 year precession period of the lunar orbit.

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[No name given]

Wow.

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[HandyDandy]

Well done!

[telescope115]

Very impressive!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

My favorite thing? When the Moon is out during the day before she sets. I took this shot, facing West a few years ago as the sun was coming up (behind me in the East) with my Canon SX530 HS:

[ConservativeMind]

Nice!

[BBB333]

That’s dedication and very nice.

Thanks as ever Mr. Climber.