What is the Major Lunar Standstill?

Why does the Moon have an 18.6 year cycle?

It’s the combination of the Earth’s tilt, the Moon’s tilt and the Sun’s gravitational pull.

In our last blog, we looked at the Earth’s tilt and how this creates our seasons throughout the year. In the summer, we are tilted towards the Sun and so the Sun is high in our sky and in the winter, we tilt away from the Sun so the Sun is low in our sky.

In this blog, we’ll look at the apparent path of the Sun across our sky which is called the ecliptic. It’s important for us to understand about the ecliptic as the Moon follows this same path.

Earth’s rotation

The Earth spins on its axis taking a day for one complete rotation. This movement of the Earth makes it seem like the Sun rises in the east, moves across our sky and sets in the west. But, of course, the Sun isn’t moving, it is us on Earth rotating.

Earth’s orbit

Whilst the Earth spins on its axis, it also orbits around the Sun taking roughly one year to complete one rotation. From here on Earth, over the period of one year, it looks like the Sun moves through the constellations but we know that the Sun is not really moving and it’s the Earth’s movement that makes it seem that way.

During any given month, the Sun sits between the Earth and a different zodiac constellation. If we draw an apparent line from the Earth through the Sun towards the stars beyond, as the Earth orbits around the Sun, this line moves too, pointing to different stars whilst the Sun stays steady in the middle. In one year, the Earth has made a complete cycle around the Sun and this moving line forms an imaginary circle. See our video at the end of the post.

Ecliptic

This imaginary circle around Earth shows the apparent path of the Sun across our sky and is called the ecliptic. The Moon follows the ecliptic but she has her own tilt so she swings from just above the ecliptic to just below. We’ll take a look at the Moon’s tilt in our next blog…

Look out for the Moon

You don’t need to understand astronomy to experience the height of the Moon. You can see the extremes when you look up at the sky. Every month, the Moon will swing from very high to very low.

Check your lunar diary or calendar to see when the Moon is in Gemini/Cancer as she’ll be high in the sky and Sagittarius/Capricorn when she’ll be low. Our Astro Moon Calendar 2025 shows the high and low Moons each month.

February dates

8th – highest Moon this month
22nd – lowest Moon this month

Journey of exploration

We’re so happy that you’re joining us on a journey of exploration. We’ve been following the Moon’s cycle for years now and have been deepening our understanding of the astronomy. However, we’re really not experts and we’re always learning so if you have anything that you’d like to share or have any requests then please leave a comment.

Back in 2006, we travelled up to the Callanish stone circle to witness the lowest full Moon in the lunar cycle. We’re now really excited to be preparing to make that journey once again this summer, a whole lunar cycle later…

Tina & Ceri