First
Quarter* ♈ Aries
Moon phase on 31 December 2011 Saturday is Waxing Crescent, 7 days young Moon is in Aries.
Share this page: twitter facebook linkedinWaxing Crescent is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 43% and growing larger. The 7 days young Moon is in ♈ Aries.
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Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 6 days on 24 December 2011 at 18:06.
Moon rises in the morning and sets in the evening. It is visible toward the southwest in early evening.
Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 9.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1782" and ∠1951".
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2012 after 8 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 7 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the beginning to the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 148 of Meeus index or 1101 from Brown series.
Length of current 148 lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 33 minutes. It is 1 hour and 22 minutes shorter than next lunation 149 length.
Length of current synodic month is 49 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 6 hours and 14 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠42.1°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠70.8°. 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 perigee on 22 December 2011 at 02:56 in ♏ Scorpio. The lunar orbit is getting wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 2 days, until it get to the point of next apogee on 2 January 2012 at 20:19 in ♈ Aries.
Moon is 402 276 km (249 963 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves farther next 2 days until apogee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 404 580 km (251 394 mi).
8 days after its ascending node on 23 December 2011 at 11:36 in ♐ Sagittarius, 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 6 January 2012 at 14:30 in ♊ Gemini.
8 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius, the Moon is moving from the beginning to the first part of it.
7 days after previous South standstill on 23 December 2011 at 17:25 in ♐ Sagittarius, when Moon has reached southern declination of ∠-22.554°. Next 6 days the lunar orbit moves northward to face North declination of ∠22.539° in the next northern standstill on 6 January 2012 at 21:46 in ♊ Gemini.
After 8 days on 9 January 2012 at 07:30 in ♋ Cancer, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.