Waning
Gibbous ♍ Virgo
Moon phase on 15 December 2011 Thursday is Waning Gibbous, 19 days old Moon is in Leo.
Share this page: twitter facebook linkedinWaning Gibbous is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 77% and getting smaller. The 19 days old Moon is in ♌ Leo.
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Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 4 days on 10 December 2011 at 14:36.
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 about ∠21° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1907" and ∠1950".
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2012 after 24 days on 9 January 2012 at 07:30.
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 19 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the middle to the last part of current synodic month. This is lunation 147 of Meeus index or 1100 from Brown series.
Length of current 147 lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 57 minutes. It is 1 hour and 36 minutes shorter than next lunation 148 length.
Length of current synodic month is 47 minutes shorter than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 5 hours and 22 minutes longer, compared to 21st century shortest.
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠21.6°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠42.1°. 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°).
9 days after point of apogee on 6 December 2011 at 01:13 in ♈ Aries. The lunar orbit is getting closer, while the Moon is moving inward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 6 days, until it get to the point of next perigee on 22 December 2011 at 02:56 in ♏ Scorpio.
Moon is 375 828 km (233 529 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves closer next 6 days until perigee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 364 801 km (226 677 mi).
5 days after its descending node on 10 December 2011 at 07:04 in ♊ Gemini, the Moon is following the southern part of its orbit for the next 7 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from South to North in ascending node on 23 December 2011 at 11:36 in ♐ Sagittarius.
19 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
4 days after previous North standstill on 10 December 2011 at 13:37 in ♊ Gemini, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠22.554°. Next 8 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-22.554° in the next southern standstill on 23 December 2011 at 17:25 in ♐ Sagittarius.
After 9 days on 24 December 2011 at 18:06 in ♐ Sagittarius, the Moon will be in New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy.