Waning
Crescent ♐ Sagittarius
Moon phase on 31 December 2002 Tuesday is Waning Crescent, 27 days old Moon is in Sagittarius.
Share this page: twitter facebook linkedinWaning Crescent is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 7% and getting smaller. The 27 days old Moon is in ♐ Sagittarius.
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 27 December 2002 at 00:31.
Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.
Moon is passing about ∠9° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 0.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1944" and ∠1951".
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2003 after 17 days on 18 January 2003 at 10:48.
There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.
The Moon is 27 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the second to the final part of current synodic month. This is lunation 36 of Meeus index or 989 from Brown series.
Length of current 36 lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 48 minutes. It is 1 hour and 38 minutes shorter than next lunation 37 length.
Length of current synodic month is 4 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 6 hours and 59 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠32.1°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠56.5°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep increasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of apogee (∠180°).
1 day after point of perigee on 30 December 2002 at 01:06 in ♏ Scorpio. The lunar orbit is getting wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 10 days, until it get to the point of next apogee on 11 January 2003 at 00:43 in ♉ Taurus.
Moon is 368 677 km (229 085 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves farther next 10 days until apogee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 404 343 km (251 247 mi).
Moon is in descending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 11:16 on this date, it crosses the ecliptic from North to South. Moon will follow the southern part of its orbit for the next 14 days to meet ascending node on 14 January 2003 at 13:38 in ♊ Gemini.
13 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♊ Gemini, the Moon is moving from the middle to the last part of it.
10 days after previous North standstill on 20 December 2002 at 18:29 in ♋ Cancer, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠25.790°. Next 2 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-25.783° in the next southern standstill on 2 January 2003 at 16:56 in ♑ Capricorn.
After 2 days on 2 January 2003 at 20:23 in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon will be in New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy.