---
title: "Lunar Standstill — 18.6-Year Nodal Cycle Status"
method: GET
path: "/calendar/astrology/lunar-standstill"
tags: ["calendar"]
---

# Lunar Standstill — 18.6-Year Nodal Cycle Status

`GET /calendar/astrology/lunar-standstill`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.openephemeris.com`
- URL: `https://api.openephemeris.com/calendar/astrology/lunar-standstill`
- Auth: one of:
  - HTTP bearer
  - API key in header `X-OpenEphemeris-API-Key`
  - API key in header `X-API-Key`
  - API key in header `X-Service-Key`

Returns the current state of the 18.6-year lunar nodal cycle. Identifies Major Standstill (Moon reaches ±28.6° declination) and Minor Standstill (Moon limited to ±18.3°) epochs. The most recent Major Standstill is circa 2025.4. **Pricing:** 2 credits — a single point-in-time lookup.

## Query parameters

- `date` string, nullable
- `jd` number, double, nullable

## Response `200`

Nodal cycle status and next standstill dates

- LunarStandstillResponse: Lunar standstills for a specific year.
  - `_meta` object, required: Calculation metadata
  - `events` LunarStandstillInfo[], required: Standstill events in the year
    - `declination` number, required: Moon's declination at the peak
    - `node_distance` number, required: Angular distance to the node
    - `peak_date` string, required: ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of the peak of the standstill
    - `type` string, required: 'major' or 'minor'
  - `year` integer, required: Year searched

## Other responses

- `400`: Bad Request
- `422`: Validation Error
- `500`: Internal Server Error

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/openephemeris/apis/open-ephemeris-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/openephemeris/apis/open-ephemeris-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/openephemeris/apis/open-ephemeris-api/revisions/d195a769cb89?raw)