Waxing
Gibbous ♍ Virgo
Moon phase on 16 March 2003 Sunday is Waxing Gibbous, 12 days young Moon is in Leo.
Share this page: twitter facebook linkedinWaxing Gibbous is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 95% and growing larger. The 12 days young Moon is in ♌ Leo.
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Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 11 March 2003 at 07:15.
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 is leaving the last ∠1° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♍ Virgo later.
Lunar disc appears visually 0.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1914" and ∠1929".
Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2003 after 1 day on 18 March 2003 at 10:34.
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.
The Moon is 12 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the first to the middle part of current synodic month. This is lunation 39 of Meeus index or 992 from Brown series.
Length of current 39 lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 44 minutes. It is 12 minutes shorter than next lunation 40 length.
Length of current synodic month is 4 hours longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 3 hours and 3 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠127.8°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠157.7°. 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°).
8 days after point of apogee on 7 March 2003 at 16:34 in ♉ Taurus. The lunar orbit is getting closer, while the Moon is moving inward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 3 days, until it get to the point of next perigee on 19 March 2003 at 18:57 in ♎ Libra.
Moon is 374 407 km (232 646 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves closer next 3 days until perigee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 359 818 km (223 581 mi).
6 days after its ascending node on 9 March 2003 at 19:23 in ♉ Taurus, the Moon is following the northern part of its orbit for the next 6 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from North to South in descending node on 22 March 2003 at 17:37 in ♏ Scorpio.
6 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♉ Taurus, the Moon is moving from the beginning to the first part of it.
3 days after previous North standstill on 12 March 2003 at 19:44 in ♋ Cancer, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠26.158°. Next 8 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-26.258° in the next southern standstill on 25 March 2003 at 11:01 in ♑ Capricorn.
After 1 day on 18 March 2003 at 10:34 in ♍ Virgo, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.