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@sinabhfuil I am not an astronomer, but the relative position of the sun, earth and moon are always the same at full moon (they are in a line with the earth in the middle). Because the moon’s orbit is not circular, the moon may be at a slightly different distance to earth from one full moon to another, which means we get “supermoons” about one time in 4 because the moon is closer to us due to the elliptical nature of its orbit.

I learned this through playing Kerbal Space Program!

@Des_egan Eh………

@gorhendad_oldbuck @sinabhfuil That's true as long as you're in the northern hemisphere (which we all are). In the southern hemisphere, the full moon is always exactly north at midnight.

At 5.14° of the equator, the full moon is directly overhead at midnight, because 5.14° is the angle the ecliptic and the plane of the moon's orbit.

Between the equator and 5.14° north, the full moon is just slightly in the northern part of the sky at midnight. The reverse is true above 5.14° south.

@Infrapink @sinabhfuil yes, since Petrichor said it was towards the South and was posting on an Irish server I took an educated guess :-) I was on Gran Canaria during the winter an it was shocking how high the (first quarter) moon appeared in the sky - almost disconcerting to anybody from mid-northern latitudes.