Waxing Gibbous on

Moon phase on 18 December 2002 Wednesday is Waxing Gibbous, 13 days young Moon is in Gemini.

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Moon phase for

Lunar calendar 2002 | December 2002

Waxing Gibbous phase
Waxing Gibbous phase
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.

Waxing Gibbous 98% illuminated

Waxing Gibbous is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 98% and growing larger. The 13 days young Moon is in ♊ Gemini.

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Moon phases for next 7 days

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Moon phase and lunation details

6 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 6 days on 11 December 2002 at 15:49.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises in the afternoon and sets after midnight to early morning. It is visible to the southeast in early evening and it is up for most of the night.

Moon in ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠11° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1801"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1801" and ∠1950".

Cold Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2002 after 1 day on 19 December 2002 at 19:10.

Upcoming main Moon phases

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Lunation 36 / 989

The Moon is 13 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the first to the middle part of current synodic month. This is lunation 36 of Meeus index or 989 from Brown series.

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Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 48 minutes. It is 1 hour and 38 minutes shorter than the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increasing with the true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 59 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit position on

True anomaly ∠32.1°

At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠32.1°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠56.5°.

Moon after apogee

4 days after point of apogee on 14 December 2002 at 03:57 in ♈ Aries. The lunar orbit is getting narrow, while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days, until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 December 2002 at 01:06 in ♏ Scorpio.

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Distance to Moon 397 959 km

The Moon is 397 959 km (247 280 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 904 km (228 605 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♊ Gemini at 06:47 crossing the ecliptic from South to North to meet descending node 12 days later on 31 December 2002 at 11:16 in ♐ Sagittarius.

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New draconic month

At 06:47 the Moon completes the previous draconic month and enters the new one.

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Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the previous standstill on 6 December 2002 at 07:00 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.808°, the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.790° at the point of next northern standstill on 20 December 2002 at 18:29 in ♋ Cancer.

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Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 19 December 2002 at 19:10 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is going to be in a Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy alignment.

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