← Reference · Body 11 of 13

True Node

18.6 years to circuit the zodiac · about 18 months per sign

A crossing point, not an object. Nothing is there.

The lunar nodes are the two points where the Moon's orbital plane intersects the plane of the ecliptic. Eclipses can only happen when a new or full Moon occurs near one, which is exactly what makes them worth tracking.

They move backwards, completing a circuit in 18.6 years. The 'true' node wobbles slightly around the smoothed 'mean' node; this site plots the true one.

Because nothing physically occupies a node, it has no brightness, no disc and no latitude of its own. It is a geometric intersection.

What it is

Not a body. The point where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic going north.