Waning
Gibbous ♍ Virgo
Moon phase on 17 December 2008 Wednesday is Waning Gibbous, 20 days old Moon is in Virgo.
Share this page: twitter facebook linkedinWaning Gibbous is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 70% and getting smaller. The 20 days old Moon is in ♍ Virgo.
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Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 4 days on 12 December 2008 at 16:37.
Moon rises in the evening and sets in the morning. It is visible to the southwest and it is high in the sky after midnight.
Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 1.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1917" and ∠1950".
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2009 after 24 days on 11 January 2009 at 03:27.
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 20 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the middle to the last part of current synodic month. This is lunation 110 of Meeus index or 1063 from Brown series.
Length of current 110 lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 28 minutes. It is 5 minutes shorter than next lunation 111 length.
Length of current synodic month is 6 hours and 44 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 19 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
This lunation true anomaly is ∠161.9°. At the beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠186.6°. 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°).
4 days after point of perigee on 12 December 2008 at 21:37 in ♊ Gemini. The lunar orbit is getting wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 9 days, until it get to the point of next apogee on 26 December 2008 at 17:50 in ♐ Sagittarius.
Moon is 374 009 km (232 398 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves farther next 9 days until apogee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 406 602 km (252 651 mi).
1 day after its descending node on 15 December 2008 at 23:02 in ♌ Leo, the Moon is following the southern part of its orbit for the next 12 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from South to North in ascending node on 30 December 2008 at 07:40 in ♒ Aquarius.
14 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♒ Aquarius, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
4 days after previous North standstill on 12 December 2008 at 18:39 in ♊ Gemini, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠27.024°. Next 8 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-27.026° in the next southern standstill on 26 December 2008 at 08:03 in ♐ Sagittarius.
After 10 days on 27 December 2008 at 12:23 in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon will be in New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy.