Waxing
Gibbous ♉ Taurus
Moon phase for
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
First Quarter 60% illuminated
First Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 60% and growing larger. The 8 days young Moon is in ♈ Aries.
* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 27 December 2006 at 14:48 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Moon phase and lunation details
Moonrise and moonset
Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. It is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.
Moon in ♈ Aries
Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1971"
Lunar disc appears visually 1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1971" and ∠1951".
Wolf Moon after 6 days
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2007 after 6 days on 3 January 2007 at 13:57.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Full Moon in Cancer ♋ on 3 January 2007 at 13:57
- Last Quarter in Libra ♎ on 11 January 2007 at 12:45
- New Moon in Capricorn ♑ on 19 January 2007 at 04:01
- First Quarter in Aries ♈ on 25 January 2007 at 23:02
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 86 / 1039
The Moon is 8 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 86 of Meeus index or 1039 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.58 days
Length of current 86 lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 1 minute. It is 1 hour and 46 minutes longer than next lunation 87 length.
Lunation length longer than mean
Length of current synodic month is 1 hour and 16 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 5 hours and 47 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠276.5°
This lunation true anomaly is ∠276.5°. At the beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠308.6°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep decreasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).
Moon in perigee
Moon is reaching point of perigee on this date at 01:48, this is 14 days after last apogee on 13 December 2006 at 18:55 in ♍ Virgo. Lunar orbit is starting to get wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth for 13 days ahead, until it will get to the point of next apogee on 10 January 2007 at 16:26 in ♎ Libra.
Distance to Moon 370 321 km
This perigee Moon is 370 321 km (230 107 mi) away from Earth. This is the year's farthest perigee of 2006. It is 7 813 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 35 km farther than the closest perigee of 21st century.
Moon after ascending node
2 days after its ascending node on 26 December 2006 at 10:36 in ♓ Pisces, the Moon is following the northern part of its orbit for the next 11 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from North to South in descending node on 8 January 2007 at 17:44 in ♍ Virgo.
Draconic month
2 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♓ Pisces, the Moon is moving from the beginning to the first part of it.
Moon before northern standstill
7 days after previous South standstill on 20 December 2006 at 13:40 in ♐ Sagittarius, when Moon has reached southern declination of ∠-28.378°. Next 4 days the lunar orbit moves northward to face North declination of ∠28.396° in the next northern standstill on 2 January 2007 at 11:57 in ♊ Gemini.
Syzygy in 6 days
After 6 days on 3 January 2007 at 13:57 in ♋ Cancer, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.