Moon in Geneva Today — Full Moon

Moon in Geneva — Did You Know?

• ·Geneva hosts the International Astronomical Union's working group on the Definition of the Second and Lunar Time Standards — the city's BIPM (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) affiliate agencies have debated lunar timing conventions since 1875, making Geneva the de facto global capital of lunar time science; the monthly meetings of these standards bodies coincide, by long tradition, with the new moon, when astronomical timing is most critically testable.
• ·Geneva lies at the western tip of Lake Geneva (Lac Léman), the largest Alpine lake in Western Europe at 73 km long, with the Mont Blanc massif (4,808 m) rising 70 km to the southeast and the Jura mountains bordering the city to the northwest; on clear winter nights from the Promenade du Lac, the full moon rises between the Dents du Midi peaks to the east and reflects along the entire length of the lake toward Montreux — an Alpine lake moonpath of extraordinary scale.
• ·At latitude 46.2° N, Geneva sits in a basin between the Alps and the Jura; in winter the full moon reaches a maximum altitude of approximately 67° in the southern sky, arcing above the Salève escarpment that frames Geneva's southern horizon; the combination of Alpine air clarity and the lake's humidity-moderating effect gives Geneva's winter full moons an unusually sharp, high-contrast appearance that makes the lunar maria (dark seas) visible to the naked eye with uncommon clarity.